Sara of Holbrook Farm
by Anne-girl1
Summary: *COMPLETED*A twist on Anne of Green Gables, but in Diana's part of view, or in my instance, Sara Holbrook.
1. Chapter One

Chapter One  
  
*Author's Note - You might find this story quite similar to the actual Anne of Green Gables book. Sara and Anne have a lot of the same adventures as Diana and Anne do, and as Emily and Ilse do in Emily of New Moon. I tried to have it as close to the book as possible, but there were a few things I had to change. Oh, if Someday Sara reads this, no, I didn't use Sara because of you, I just happen to like the name. Well, anyway.  
  
  
  
"Over the mountains of the moon,  
  
Down the valley of the shadows."  
  
Sara looked up from her notebook and gazed out of her window at the slowly spreading dawn. This is when Sara liked to write. Each time "in the wee sma's" she'd wake up and write something different. A poem here, a paragraph there, and a chapter in between.  
  
Sara's yellow head was bent over her notebook in concentration. Her blue-gray eyes were squinted, trying to read the page for an idea to write down. She was curled up in her nightgown on the window seat, with her long legs tucked under her small, thin body and her chin rested on her hand.  
  
This cool June morning began with its usual display of brilliant colors painted across the sky. Sara liked this part of the day best. The world was quiet and serene and fresh. That's what made her like it so much.  
  
"Every morn is a fresh beginning,  
  
Every morn is a world made new."  
  
Sara listened to the robin in the willow tree outside her window and glanced back down at her empty page.  
  
"Hmm, what to write, what to write," Sara tapped her pencil against her chin in thought. She glanced out the window and a blue something in the grass caught her eye. It was a tiny flower.  
  
"Ah, perfect!" Sara smiled down at her discovery and then at her notebook and took up her pencil. She wrote swiftly and silently, pausing every now and then to think of a word.  
  
"There, it's done," Sara threw down her notebook on the window seat in triumph and read it over:  
  
"Sweet little flower thy modest face  
  
Is ever lifted towards the sky  
  
And a reflection of its face  
  
Is caught within thine own blue eye.  
  
The meadow queens are tall and fair  
  
The columbines are lovely too  
  
But the poor talent I possess  
  
Shall laurel thee my flower of blue." *A/N - This is from Emily of New Moon.  
  
Sara brushed back a long golden curl from her face and leaned back to watch the sun rise. The bright-colored sphere had reached between the trees, casting shadows of tree branches across the face of the dreaming girl. The sky looked like one round rainbow bowl covering the entire earth with blends of fire and puffy pink cloud. If only Sara could catch that little bit of morning stardust and dew left over from the moonshine.  
  
"Sara! Come on down, girl, you've got to do your chores BEFORE school today!" Sara jumped and sprang up from the window seat. She dressed quickly and made up her bed, then rushed to the landing to fly down the stairs.  
  
If only her little brother had picked up his toys; Sara came tumbling down head over heels to topple in a heap at the bottom step.  
  
"Oh, my! Sara! Are you all right?" Mrs. Holbrook burst through the swinging kitchen door carrying a rolling pin and hands full of flour. Sara groaned and slowly picked herself up, brushing off the dust on her calico dress.  
  
"Really, dear, you ought to be more careful, that's the third time this week," her mother wiped her hands on her apron and put an arm around Sara's shoulder to steer her into the kitchen, where it was warm from the oven. She sat Sara down at the scrubbed wooden table and set a bowl of hot porridge in front of her.  
  
"Oh, Mama, must I?" Sara glanced in the bowl and made a face.  
  
"Yes, you must, I grew up eating porridge every morning and I grew up to be healthy and strong and quite good-looking, I must say." Sara stifled a giggle and forced down the porridge.  
  
"Mrs. Lynde was here yesterday, Mum, calling for you while you were in town. She seemed quite excited about something, but she wouldn't tell it to me. The old gossiper clearly was itching to make a sensation about somebody's life. You know how Rachel Lynde dearly loves to create a sensation."  
  
"Sara, I cannot deny that that is, well, quite, um, true, but you should never speak ill of your elders. I've been telling you that long enough for you to remember sometimes at least."  
  
Sara sighed and brought her porridge bowl to the sink to wash it out before leaving for school. At once, five sets of feet came running down the stairs and into the kitchen. Four heads of blond and one of nut-brown surrounded the table. It was like a bomb had gone off.  
  
"Mum, can you look over this piece of math homework?"  
  
"I'm hungry!"  
  
Mother, I love those cookies you made yesterday, can I have some more for dinner?"  
  
"I need a fork!"  
  
"I'm hungry!"  
  
"Mum, you need to sign this for Mr. Philips. I was late again."  
  
"I'M HUNGRY!"  
  
"That's enough!"  
  
Mrs. Holbrook waved her hand in the air to provoke silence.  
  
"I will do all that you ask, if you please ask politely and one at a time. Now, Elizabeth, what do you need?"  
  
The girl with the nut-brown curls answered, "I need you to check over these sums for me, please, Mother."  
  
"Oh, goody-two-shoes," murmured one of the brothers, "AHEM," Mrs. Holbrook gave her son one of her "looks" that only a mother possesses.  
  
"Danny hungry!" The littlest brother with blond hair and freckles hit his tiny hands on the table.  
  
"Dear, ask nicely and I will get you some nice, hot porridge."  
  
"Oh.Danny not hungry anymore!"  
  
Sara stood by the sink, watching her three brothers and two sisters at the table.  
  
"Oh, Mum, I need to go early, see you this afternoon," she grabbed her dinner pail and made for the door.  
  
"She's not going to school, she's going to Barry's Pond!" a brother yelled out.  
  
"Tattletale," Sara muttered.  
  
"Hush, Peter. Sara, what have I told you about going to Barry's Pond before school? Mr. Philips called on Tuesday to say that you arrive in breathless gasps at the sound of the bell."  
  
"Oh, Mother, please, I'll be early, I swear! I'll make it before the bell, just let me go, please!"  
  
"What do you do at the pond?"  
  
"Oh, stuff."  
  
Mrs. Holbrook gave her a suspicious look and said, "Oh, all right, go but don't be late! There will be consequences!" She shouted after Sara, who set off at a sprint down the lane.  
  
Sara slowed down to a stroll at the corner of Lynde's Hollow, for she knew Mrs. Lynde would be sewing her "cotton-warp" quilts at her window, looking out at the road, waiting for something unusual to happen, so she could tell the world.  
  
Sure enough, Rachel Lynde sat keeping a sharp eye on the hill, squinting in the rising sun. Sara walked comfortably down the dirt road, watching Mrs. Lynde out of the corner of her eye.  
  
Mrs. Lynde saw her come by every morning and wondered about this strange girl with the short, calico cress carrying a load of schoolbooks, notebooks, and a dinner pail. School didn't start until nine, yet here was the child all ready at seven thirty. It was ridiculous, just ridiculous! Even the schoolteacher, Mr. Philips, wouldn't be at the school, so it couldn't be for extra studying. She simply had to find out today.  
  
"Excuse me, Sara dear!" Sara gulped and turned slowly on her heel.  
  
"Where are you off to so early in the morning?"  
  
"Well, ma'am, um, you see, I, um.open the school and light the, um, wood stove." Ah, that sounded all right. She waited for Rachel's reply.  
  
"Well, I pride myself on speakin' my mind, and that just doesn't seem very smart to go and light the wood stove in the middle of June. Why, school's almost over! Wait, where you going?"  
  
Sara ran off towards the pond as fast as she could. Mrs. Lynde shook her head.  
  
"That girl needs a little lesson in manners, that's what."  
  
Yes, the morning was finally hers. She slowed to a walk again and stooped by the side of the road to pick up a buttercup.  
  
"Hmm, you seem like a likely-looking flower. Let me read your thoughts."  
  
Sara looked up at the sky searching her mind for ideas.  
  
"Ah, that's perfect!"  
  
She ran to the edge of Barry's Pond and collapsed on The Rock. Her spot for thinking, reading, and especially writing. Happily, she sighed and looked at her surroundings. There was the brook, gurgling its soft, tuneless music to the ivy hanging off the railing. Sara could see the white roof of Avonlea school sticking out over the green hilltop on the other side of the stream.  
  
Sara opened her notebook for the second time that day and set it on her lap. She gazed at the buttercup again.  
  
"Got it!"  
  
She wrote thus:  
  
"Butter, flower of the yellow dye,  
  
I see thy cheerful face  
  
Greeting and nodding everywhere  
  
Careless of time and place.  
  
In boggy field or public road  
  
Or cultured garden's pale  
  
You sport your petals satin-soft,  
  
And down within the vale.  
  
You cast your loveliness around  
  
Where're you chance to be,  
  
And you shall always, buttercup,  
  
Be a dear flower to me." *A/N - This is also from Emily of New Moon.  
  
With satisfaction, Sara closed her precious notebook and moved to lie down on The Rock.  
  
With the sun higher above the trees, it had grown hotter and a little humid. Sara could care less and breathed in deep the scent of an early summer morning. She heard a bee buzz somewhere and wold flowers near The Rock lightly brushed her fingers as they swayed gently in the breeze. This breeze moved through her long golden curls hanging loosely from under her faded straw hat. Sara closed her eyes and dreamt of her Prince Charming coming to rescue her on noble steed. He was handsome and cunning and perfectly romantic. He opened his lips to say something profound when a bell rang somewhere in the distance.  
  
"Oh no!" Sara groaned. She picked up her things and ran over the bridge, up the hill, down the other side, and stumbled into the schoolyard, now empty except for a few abandoned schoolbooks forgotten on the ground.  
  
Knowing what was coming, Sara stepped slowly up to the large wooden door and pulled it open.  
  
Twenty-five pairs of eyes darted over to her now-reddening face. She swallowed with difficulty and went to sit down.  
  
"Excuse me, Sara Holbrook," Mr. Philips turned around from tutoring a student.  
  
"I believe you are late, again."  
  
"I, um."  
  
"No, I'm sorry, this has gone far enough, stand at the board."  
  
Sara, face turning slowly to purple, stepped up to the black board. Mr. Philip, a tall, gangly man with red hair and round glasses, wrote on the board: Sara will not be late for class again. He turned to face the trembling creature.  
  
"You will write this over one hundred times before leaving school, for my benefit."  
  
Sara, now tearing, picked up a piece of chalk and began to write.  
  
  
  
At the end of the day, Sara ran home as fast as she could without a look back at the school. She tried to open the door quietly, but.  
  
"SARA!" Mrs. Holbrook's voice boomed through the parlor, "Sara, I thought I told you to be early for class today! Mr. Philips has just been here telling me of your lack of responsibility. Go to your room."  
  
Sara bade her command, wiping her nose on her sleeve, as she clambered up the stairs, tripping halfway up.  
  
She threw herself on her bed and wept bitter tears. It was a beautiful day and she had to waste it away locked in her room. She went to sit at her usual seat by the window and hugged her knees, staring out past the horizon for a lovely dream that was only hours away, yet seemed years ago. When no more tears could be shed, she sat sulking, her head resting on her knees.  
  
Then she had an idea. She crept to the door and listened, it was quiet, save the squeals of Danny. She tiptoed back to the window and climbed out, placing a foot on sturdy limb. Ah, she was free. The cool air of the on-coming evening felt wonderful on her warm, tear-stained face. Sara walked towards the apple orchards, behind their arm and climbed a tree. These orchards were shared she knew by the Cuthberts who lived at Green Gables, just over the hill. She had never seen the house, Matthew Cuthbert's father had been very shy indeed when he built the house far away into the woods a hundred years before. Sara knew Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert, brother and sister, lived there alone.  
  
At the highest limb of the tree, Sara sat and watched the sun go down and the moon slowly rise. She gazed out at the miles of woods filed with lovely scented pines and birch, slim dark oaks that reached the sky.  
  
"The woods were God's first temples," she murmured. Sara jumped down from the tree and started to walk home. All of a sudden, she heard something. It sounded like whistling. She spun around and saw the most peculiar looking girl wearing a tight wincey dress and a faded straw hat with poppies stuck smartly through it. The girl had carrot-red hair and a lovely, turned-up nose covered much with freckles. Why, her face was full of them. The girl was also quite tall and graceful looking. Sara stared astonished at this strangely adorned creature of the twilight. The girl was picking apples and hadn't noticed Sara.  
  
Sara crept forward. The girl turned and saw Sara and burst into jubilant exclamations.  
  
"Oh, I knew something good would happen to me tonight. I just felt it as I saw the full moon. It gave me such a thrill. Oh, isn't the breath of the mint delicious?"  
  
"You look like a nice girl. My name is Anne Shirley. I'd rather call myself Cordelia Fitzgerald with a rose-leaf complexion, lovely starry violet eyes and raven hair. But since my hair is pitifully red, I cannot imagine my hair a raven black. I simply loathe my red hair. It will be my life-long sorrow. I read of a girl in a book once who had a life-long sorrow, but it wasn't red hair, she was beautiful. She had long, golden locks, rather like yours actually. What's your name?"  
  
Sara dumbfounded at this greeting, whispered, "I'm Sara Holbrook."  
  
"Quite glad to meet you," Anne stuck out a slender hand, "I know we are going to be bosom friends. I've never had a bosom friend, except for Katie, but she was only my window-friend. I could see her through the glass of Mrs. Thomas's bookcase, which's where I was before the asylum. Oh, how I longed to step through the glass into Katie's world. It was so beautiful. Oh, I'm sorry for babbling on so much. I do tend to do that, don't I?"  
  
Sara was very shy of this delightful stranger with the shining, laughing eyes and sweet smile.  
  
"Let us take a solemn oath of our friendship, devoting ourselves to each other," Anne said. Sara, wanting to see more of this girl's infinite depths, consented.  
  
"Oh, good, all right, just say this, 'I solemnly swear to be very faithful to my bosom friend, Sara Holbrook, as long as the sun and moon shall endure'."  
  
Sara cleared her throat and said, "I solemnly swear to be very faithful to my bosom friend Anne Shirley, for as long as the sun and moon shall endure." 


	2. Chapter Two

Chapter Two  
  
Sara rubbed her eyes and rolled over, squinting in the morning sunlight. She was glad it was Saturday; there was no school. She sat up and pulled her knees up to her chest.  
  
"It was a dream," she sighed, "a beautiful dream, in which I found a lovely friend to keep company with me through life and then she disappeared. And it seemed like such a wonderful, real dream too."  
  
Sara dressed in her Saturday "work clothes" for chores and sat at the window, sighing again. Today will be better, she told herself, not really believing anything she was saying.  
  
The day sauntered past in slow, humid rolls. When twilight came once more, Sara made her way back to the apple orchard, just to make sure she wasn't really going crazy. She climbed a tree and waited a while, watching the crows fly in groups across the flaming sky. When the moon rose, Sara gave up and jumped to the ground, with a feeling of resentment in her girlish heart. She turned toward Holbrook farm.  
  
"Isn't it funny that we seem to always meet in the twilight of the day? We always hope to find 'a merry lilt o'moonlight for mermaiden revelry'," a voice said behind her.  
  
Sara spun around and there was her dream in the flesh. "Anne!" she cried and rushed over to her.  
  
"Hello," the redhead replied, "I figured we'd end up meeting again today and in our first spot. And did you know? I start school on Monday."  
  
"Oh, that's wonderful!" Sara exclaimed, finding her voice for the first time since their first meeting, "I can walk you there, if you like, where do you live?"  
  
"Oh, with Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert. They're lovely dear folk. Well, I might as well tell you, though they're not sure whether they're going to keep me. You see, they had asked for a boy from the orphan asylum, but Mrs. Spencer, she brought me here, made a mistake and brought me instead! I'm on trial for now and I've had some difficulties, but Mrs. Lynde told Marilla I ought to be in school anyhow, trial or no trial, even though the year's just about ending."  
  
Sara closed her mouth, which had fallen half-open as she listened.  
  
"Well, I'm glad I've met you anyway," she said, "I'm quite sure you'll like it here."  
  
"Oh, I already do, Sara, I just love the White Way of Delight and the Lake of Shining Waters."  
  
"What?" Sara looked at Anne with an inquisitive look.  
  
"Well, Matthew said they were really called the Avenue and Barry's Pond, but I don't like those names, so I made up new and better ones. It's really fun."  
  
"How wonderful!" was all Sara could come up with. This girl was extremely interesting and her funny ways were so unexpected that it made Sara feel rather dizzy.  
  
"Well," Sara said, "I'd like to see you tomorrow after church, if you can. I could give you a tour of all the places I like to go to."  
  
"That would be very helpful. We'll take 'a ramble through the September woods, away where spices grow'."  
  
Sara smiled, perplexed, and waved goodbye to her new friend.  
  
"Goodbye, friend, 'Partings are such sweet sorrow'," called Anne through the gloom of the trees.  
  
Sara smiled again to herself and was, overall, quite pleased with her new friend.  
  
* * * *  
  
"And this is where I go before school every day at The Rock," Sara explained to Anne, leading her down to the edge of, what Anne called, "the Lake of Shining Waters."  
  
"Oh, no, this isn't The Rock," Anne said, looking around, "this is the...um..the Dryad's Bubble. Yes, that fits this little 'spot o'greenery' much better, don't you think?"  
  
Sara agreed this name sounded a lot more interesting. Hence started the name game. The two girls took their "ramble through the woods where spices grow" and came up with Willowmere, a lovely spot encircled by willow trees. There was Idlewild, they decided the place where they met should have a special name of its own. Sara showed Anne Violet's Vale, a large field, where, in the spring, Sara told Anne, was full of violets; then there was Lover's Lane a long path infringed with wild flowers and fairies; and the last one, the Birch Path, the one that Anne let Sara name. It was a long path, in which they would use to get to school, covered by birches and ferns on each side.  
  
So started Anne's first day of school. Sara was so excited that she didn't go to the Dryad's Bubble that day. On the way, Sara told Anne all about the students and Mr. Philips.  
  
"And everyone hates Mr. Philips, he spends all his time with Prissy Andrews, because she's studying for the entrance for Queens and she thinks she's Queen bee because of it. Mr. Philips is just dead gone on her. It's sickening really.  
  
"Then there's Ruby Gillis. She has lovely, long golden hair and beautiful features. All the boys goggle over her somethin' fierce. And she quite enjoys it, I believe.  
  
"Jane Andrews is a nice girl, she's rather plain and sensible for my taste, but very sweet. She has plain features, unlike Ruby, but quite like her personality. I always like to sit with her because, well, before you, Anne, I didn't have a bosom friend.  
  
And, oh, Josie and Gertie Pye. They're sisters and the most disagreeable girls you've ever seen. They're very smug and stuck-up. They tease me something awful.  
  
There's Charlie Sloane. He's tall and has abnormal goggle eyes. He's rather annoying to me. He's friends with Gilbert Blythe, but Gilbert won't be coming till September because his father was ill, and he was set back. He's sixteen, but he's in our class. He's very handsome. All the girls think so.  
  
Um, there's Moody Spurgeon. He has red hair and ears that stick out really far. People always tell him to sleep with a rubber band around his head.  
  
Well, that's all I know of. All the others are younger."  
  
"What do you think they'll think of me? I'm sure they'll think I'm ugly with my red hair and freckles and skinniness."  
  
"Oh, they won't. Josie might though. But she'll only bother you if she's jealous of you. She's always envious of my head of curls because her hair is very straight. Anyway, I don't think it matters much what you look like."  
  
"I suppose so."  
  
They reached the top of the hill past the Lake of Shining Waters and looked down upon the white-washed Avonlea School.  
  
"How quaint!" was Anne's comment and they strolled down to the dingy yard, a patch of dirt that had been trodden on so much that grass couldn't grow there. Sara watched Anne out of the corner of her eye; she was looking in all directions, not wanting to miss anyone. There was an instant muttering about the schoolyard. Sara smiled weakly and led Anne into the schoolhouse, just before the bell rang and there was a shuffle of feet to get to the door to see the new-comer.  
  
"Name?" Mr. Philips asked, almost lazily.  
  
"Anne Shirley, Anne spelled with an 'e'."  
  
We pride ourselves on good be--quite down class! We pride ourselves on good behavior and discipline. Please take a seat next to Sara Holbrook."  
  
Sara grinned at Anne, who turned around and smiled back.  
  
"Oh, thank you, sir," Anne exclaimed with happiness, "Sara is my bosom friend."  
  
There was a ripple of giggles throughout the classroom. Mr. Philips eyed them and told Anne to take a seat. Anne skipped merrily to Sara's desk and set her books neatly on the top.  
  
Sara watched Anne look over the top of the desk, which was covered with hieroglyphics from past years. Anne sighed and looked around gleefully for a moment before settling down to work. 


	3. Chapter Three

Chapter Three  
  
"Please, class, turn to page forty-two in your books and work on the questions till the end of class, I MUST work with my Queens student now," Mr. Philips gave a stupid-looking smile to Prissy Andrews in the back seat. Sara grimaced and Anne made a face. The talking in the classroom quieted down to whispers and giggles.  
  
Sara returned to her history notes and Anne to hers. It had been a week since Anne's arrival at school and she was quite popular among the girls. Jane Andrews had given her a little card with a doily that said:  
  
"When twilight drops her curtain down,  
  
and pins it with a star,  
  
Remember that you have a friend,  
  
Though she may wander far."  
  
Ruby Gillis offered to teach Anne a new pattern to stitch lace. Another girl gave her an old perfume bottle to keep slate water in.  
  
All of the girls lent each other parts of their dinners, especially dessert, as Sara explained to Anne. And if you didn't have enough to go around, then you were considered rude and selfish. The schoolmates also did readings during recess, during which each girl read aloud a chapter from a book. Anne was a favorite to read aloud, with her dauntless and dramatic expressions. She was quite admired by some of the boys as well. Ruby Gillis excitedly told Anne one morning that "Charlie Sloane was dead gone on" her. It was a tradition to write up paired names on the whitewashed wall of the schoolhouse; they called it take-notices. Anne hoped never to have her name up with anyone's as she haughtily told Sara on their way home one day, especially with goggle-eyed Charlie Sloane.  
  
Sara was the most beloved of Anne's many friends, for after all they were sworn to each other bosom friends for eternity. But Anne liked being in the company of Sara the best anyhow, vow or no vow. With Anne's help, Sara was welcomed into the group of little girls with open arms. She did much better in school and was happier going.  
  
Anne and Sara had many wanderings through the woods in the afternoons. They'd sit in Idlewild to do their homework and take walks along the Lake of Shining Waters.  
  
Their first adventure was after school when they took a journey up the shore road. They talked nonchalantly about school and things and picked the Queen Anne's Lace on the side of the dirt road.  
  
The sun was hot that day and they enjoyed the cool wind on their bare heads as their hats hung loosely around their necks. The hills spread out before them and the red cliffs rose to their right, falling sharply to the sands of the Avonlea shore. They heard the gulls screeching in among the clouds, which were floating carelessly in the ethereal blue sky. Anne gazed out on the azure blue of the ocean and the golden ripples reflecting the bright light of the winking sunbeams.  
  
"A magic casement opening on the foam,  
  
Of perilous seas and fairylands forlorn.  
  
The sea is beautiful today isn't it? It just makes me want to fly over it and soar among the clouds. Looking at such things gives me that pleasant ache I always get whenever I look at something beautiful. I just love pretty things. Aren't these red roads peculiar? I've asked many people here why they were red, and nobody would tell me. Isn't it splendid to know there are so many things to find out about? It makes me feel glad to be alive, it's such an interesting world." Here she paused and gazed thoughtfully again out to the horizon.  
  
"Look at that sea, all silver and shadow and visions of things not seen. Hey, look there, someone's coming up the road."  
  
The two girls looked at the person coming up the hill. It seemed to be a peddler man and he was pushing a big cart of various objects. When he got closer, Anne and Sara saw that he wasn't a very good-looking man. He was small with dirty clothes and ruffled dark black hair. His face and skin was rough and his features were quite big. His large, dark eyes seemed to be taking in the two girls and he stopped in front of them.  
  
"Care to buy anything off the cart, girls?" he had some sort of a foreign accent that Sara couldn't place. Anne and Sara edged over to the pile of bottles and cloths and bulging bundles of other interesting things.  
  
"I've got everything from ladies perfume to some hayseed, but I doubt you'd be buyin' any o'that."  
  
"What's this?" Sara felt a royal purple cloth that was pleasantly soft to the touch.  
  
"Why, that's silk material. One dollar," the peddler explained. Sara wasn't intending to buy anything from this curious-looking stranger. She wasn't sure if he could be trusted. But Anne was searching through the bottles. She picked up one that was small and dark-colored and had some thick liquid inside.  
  
"What's this?" she asked interested.  
  
"Oh, that's hair dye. That'll make yer hair change to a beautiful raven black. Rather like mine."  
  
Sara wasn't sure about that and neither, it seemed, was Anne.  
  
"Um, how much is it?"  
  
"Fifty cents."  
  
"I'll take it," Anne fished out two coins from her apron pocket and placed them into the peddler's eager hand. Sara stared wide-eyed at her companion.  
  
"Anything fer you, ma'am?" the man turned to Sara.  
  
"No," Sara said sharply.  
  
"Oh well, yer missin' out. Well, bye now, girls."  
  
With that the peddler continued his pace down the road. The girls watched him until he turned the bend.  
  
Sara faced Anne.  
  
"What did you buy that for?"  
  
"Just like he said, it'll turn my hair a beautiful raven black."  
  
"I'm not sure if you should trust a person like that."  
  
"Well, black hair is better than red hair any day."  
  
Sara shifted uneasily and fell into step next to Anne, who started walking home.  
  
That night, Sara sat in her room at her usual window, writing. A tiny light flickering through the trees caught her eye. Anne. They set up this system of moving the candlelight in the window, whenever one wanted the other. Sara got her candle from her bedside table and put it in her window to show that she was there. Anne's light disappeared then came back, disappeared and came back. This meant that Anne needed to tell news to Sara and for Sara to come over right away. Sara answered by putting a hand in front of her candle, saying that she was coming.  
  
"Mum, I'm going to Anne's for a moment!" she yelled through the hall and ran out the front door. She swiftly made her way over the field in the moonlight, through the apple orchard, over the bridge over the brook behind Green Gables, and into the Green Gables backyard. She slipped into the side door.  
  
"Hello, Miss Cuthbert," Sara greeted a tall and thin woman, with angles and no curves and nut-brown hair pulled into a tight bun with two hair pins stuck vigorously through it. Her hair was streaked with grey. She was leaning over a pot on the stove.  
  
"Hello Sara. Oh, please call me Marilla. Anne's upstairs waiting for you. You're in for a rather interesting greeting."  
  
Thank you, Miss- Marilla," Sara, still figuring out what Marilla meant, climbed the stairs to the east gable room and opened the door.  
  
What she met in that room was something so surprising that she was stricken dumb for ten whole seconds. There was Anne sprawled on her bed, with (oh, my) GREEN hair.  
  
"A-Anne, what did you do?" Sara found her voice and looked, horrified, at the poor girl positively weeping into her pillow.  
  
"He said it would turn my hair into a beautiful raven black," Anne moaned, "I've tried three times to wash it out with shampoo until I thought my scalp would rip off. I'll have green hair forever. I thought nothing could be as awful as red hair, but GREEN is ten times worse." Anne moaned again and sank her face deep into the pillow and proceeded to cry bitter tears all over again. Sara stared at the long wavy locks of green hair that stained her school dress and the bed sheets. Well maybe you could cut it," Sara said timidly, unsure of what to do.  
  
"Marilla is going to--there, I can hear her coming up the stairs."  
  
Sure enough, Marilla Cuthbert walked into the room carrying a pair of scissors and a grim expression, yet with a curve in her set lips, that looked as if she had a desire to laugh.  
  
"Come now, Anne, you're still going to school tomorrow so let me cut it."  
  
Anne sat up and replied miserably, "Some girls in books lose their hair in doing some good deed, or in sickness, but there's nothing romantic about cutting your hair because you dyed it."  
  
"Oh, stuffinnonsense, it'll look fine, now turn to me," Marilla sat down on the bed.  
  
Sara walked over and sat in front of Anne and watched as curl after green curl fell to the floor.  
  
When Marilla was finished, Anne's hair was cut short to curl under her ears.  
  
"Oh, it's awful," Anne cried, looking in the mirror, "I'll never be able to live this down. Oh, Josie Pye will just love this."  
  
"Oh, Anne, it's really not that bad. I think it looks rather handsome, with those wee curls just peeking out from behind your ears," Sara encouraged her, thoroughly meaning everything she said.  
  
"Thank you a million times over for your encouraging comments, Sara, but I am humiliated beyond encouragement. I guess I will see you tomorrow, if I don't die from embarrassment first," she finished dramatically.  
  
Sara caught Marilla's eye and stopped herself from letting a snort of laughter escape and let herself out.  
  
She kept quiet until she reached the bridge, and then laughed for a long time, not at Anne's poor head of green or her dramatic statements, but of the whole prospect altogether.  
  
"Well, we've learned an important lesson here anyway," she thought, "never to trust the word of a peddler." 


	4. Chapter Four

Chapter Four  
  
The two bosom friends walked off to school on Monday, one strolling on ahead, the other tugging on her shorn curls, trudging behind.  
  
"Really, Anne, it looks fine, and besides it'll grow back," Sara had tried in every way to comfort her redheaded friend, but nothing had consoled her humiliation.  
  
"I don't care, it'll take years to grow back to the way it was.not that I care, my hair is forever red anyway."  
  
Sara sighed and looked on up the Birch Path. It was another humid day, the heavy clouds threatened rain, and the birches swayed in the eastern wind. The path was scattered with still green leaves that had blown off their branches in the rough breeze. There was just a week left till summer break. Anne couldn't bear the thought of leaving school for three whole months a week ago, but yesterday she begged Marilla to let her skip the last week. But Marilla had not consented and to school went Anne with a heavy heart.  
  
As they crossed over the bridge and passed the top of the hill, Anne got slower and slower. Sara, getting tired of this, said exasperated,  
  
"Oh, come now, Anne, hold your head up, you know you'll get through this, you have before."  
  
"I guess you're right, Sara, I'll hold my head up high and not care a bit what Josie Pye says. I think it's just worse IMAGINING what's going to happen and anticipating it."  
  
Sara nodded as they walked through the little grove of pine trees and into the schoolyard.  
  
Just as she said, Anne held her chin in the air and looked on straight ahead. Sara watched their peers as others started to notice Anne's hair cut. Jane and Ruby hurried over to Sara and Anne.  
  
"Hello," they said, glancing over Anne.  
  
"Hello Jane, hello Ruby," Anne said smiling as graciously as she could. Sara smiled with unease. This was too silly to get uncomfortable about!  
  
Josie came over to join the group. She saw Anne and gasped.  
  
"Why, Anne, what did you do? You know, you should really look in the mirror when you give your hair a trim. And you looked almost pretty with long hair. And that dress, it's just not right, I believe you wore it yesterday and the day before."  
  
Anne looked straight into Josie's face and said, just as graciously as to Jane and Ruby, "Why, thank you, Josie. It was ever so kind of you. As for the dress, I don't really care about it. But then you're so fortunate, the only thing you've ever had to wear twice is a sour expression," Anne smiled with vengeance and victory shining in her eyes and walked into the schoolhouse with Sara, Jane, and Ruby trailing behind her, hands over their mouths. Sara looked back at Josie and she was standing there looking horrified.  
  
The rest of the week went smoothly. Sara was quite surprised at Anne's sudden change of view. She looked on as Anne floored Josie every time sarcasm started to creep up.  
  
On the afternoon after the last school hours of the year, Sara climbed up Green Gables stairs to Anne's east gable room. She saw Anne kneeling down by the window and smiling up at the tree outside and talking.  
  
"I'll see you much often now that school's out, dear Snow Queen, I will try to think up a new poem for you tonight after I say my prayers, as I've forgotten the one I made last night. But then nothing is ever as good the next time you try to write it."  
  
Anne looked over at Sara.  
  
"Oh, hello, Sara, I've been spinning hopes and dreams this afternoon. You know, if you imagine a good deal it helps to pass the time."  
  
Sara flopped down on Anne's bed and lay her warm, glistening cheek on the cool quilt. It was the hottest day yet and just walking over to Green Gables, Sara was quite exhausted. She propped her chin in her hands and her elbows on the bed.  
  
"Who's Snow Queen?"  
  
"You mean, what's Snow Queen. Snow Queen is this cherry tree outside my window. When I first came here last month (is it a month already?), it was all frothy pink blossoms. When I woke up on my first morning, even though I was miserable, I saw Snow Queen and brightened right up. I thought up a poem about it last night, but I can't remember a word. I'll have to think up another one, but it won't be as good."  
  
"Hey, I know, let's go up to the Lake of Shining Waters and go for a swim," Sara exclaimed, "You can meet my brothers and sisters, they'll all be there."  
  
"That's sounds swell, let me just get on my wincey dress, I don't mind getting that wet."  
  
Anne finished changing and they set off, Marilla having given them a warning not to be back too late. They heard yelling before they reached the lake. As the two girls came out from behind a bush, a young blond boy jumped off the bridge into the sparkling water.  
  
"Hey, everyone, come out, I want you to meet someone!"  
  
The boys were rather reluctant to step out into the hot air, but the two girls ran right over.  
  
"Everyone, this is Anne. She lives at Green Gables with Mr. and Miss Cuthbert."  
  
"Hello," was the general answer.  
  
"Hello," Anne smiled at them.  
  
"Anne, this is Peter. He's one year younger than me and he's twelve." The blond-haired boy who had jumped off the bridge stuck out a hand, which Anne shook obligingly. Peter had curly locks of yellow like a mop on his head with the brightest blue eyes you ever saw and long eyelashes and rather stocky-looking.  
  
"And this is Elizabeth. She's ten." Anne shook her hand as well, noticing that she was the only one with nut brown curls falling about her face and big hazel eyes, with long lashes that gave her face a rather wistful look. Anne thought she was very pretty.  
  
"This is her twin, Katherine. We call her Katie though." They exchanged handshakes. Anne saw that, although Elizabeth was her twin, Katie looked nothing like her. She, like the others, had almost white-blond curls and blue, blue eyes. She was a good deal shorter than Elizabeth as well.  
  
"This is Teddy. He's seven," Sara pointed to the second smallest boy on the end.  
  
Anne saw that he, too, like his brothers and sister, had yellow hair, but a pale green shade in his eyes.  
  
"And that's Danny. He's four."  
  
Anne smiled down at the little boy clutching Elizabeth's hand. He looked like everyone else, blond hair and blue eyes. His eyes were bigger though, and still had that soft look about him from a baby.  
  
Sara looked at Anne smiling at them all. Anne's eyes fell on Katie.  
  
"What do you spell Katherine with?"  
  
Confused at the question, Katie answered, "K."  
  
"Oh good, I'm glad you spell it with a 'K,' a 'C' always looks so smug."  
  
Katie grinned at this strange girl and they all ran into the Lake of Shining Waters.  
  
"Well, what do you think of them all?" Sara asked eagerly, sitting down on the Dryad's Bubble to take her boots off.  
  
"Oh, they're lovely. It seems I can't get away from twins though. When I was living with Mrs. Hammond before I went to the asylum, I had to take care of her two sets of twins. And Mrs. Thomas's pair before that. I seem to be cursed. But I like your sisters. I wish I had siblings. It seems like so much fun to be in such a large family."  
  
Sara grinned and they ran off into the cool water. 


	5. Chapter Five

Chapter Five  
  
*A/N-This is the "Gilbert Enters" chapter, some have been not so patiently waiting for. Ok.  
  
The summer passed by in great dollops, as Sara was wont to hear from Anne in the later months of August. They went swimming several times after that first time and Sara was glad to see that her siblings got along well with Anne. Anne had actually gotten quite chummy with the twins. Katie and Elizabeth often accompanied the two girls on their "rambles through the woods."  
  
Now it was nearing the start of school again and Sara was a little anxious for it to get there. First of all, both her and Anne were quite sick of the warm weather and wanted the lovely colors of autumn to transform the world. Also, Sara knew Gilbert Blythe was finally coming back after an absence because his father was ill. Sara talked constantly about him to Anne.  
  
"All the girls think he's handsome and I do too, but he teases the girls somethin' awful. I guess I just want to know whether he's changed for the better yet."  
  
Anne didn't care much to hear about the Blythe boy, replying, "Charlie Sloane is bad enough, why add more immaturity?"  
  
Sara had shrugged at her and dropped the subject.  
  
On the first day of school, Sara and Anne made their way through the Birch Path laden with new books and slates and pencils.  
  
"Thank goodness it's cooler today," Anne breathed in the fresh morning air and sighed happily. Her cheeks were fuller than when she had first came here, Sara thought, and she wasn't so awful thin. Sara noted that Anne looked much healthier and full of life.  
  
The day certainly was cooler, and,  
  
"The little birds sang as if it were  
  
the one day of summer in all the year"  
  
The birches were glistening from the rain they had had last night and the grass had never grown so green. Everything seemed so new and fresh this morning it was no wonder Anne was feeling more wonderful than usual today.  
  
They reached the schoolyard, it looked quite the same with no noticeable grass growing on that little patch of dirt and the school looked the same as well with carvings of "take-notices" on the wall. Everyone was already there, Sara and Anne had gotten there right at the bell. They went to their normal seat by the window to find that it was already taken by a tall boy with pale skin and dark hair. Laughter shone in his dark eyes and as Sara and Anne passed by, Sara saw the boy give a wink to Anne. Anne opened her mouth, but said nothing and walked on. They only found a seat in the back across from this stranger. Sara leaned over to Anne's ear and whispered, "That's Gilbert Blythe. Now you look and see if he's not handsome."  
  
Anne looked and answered back, "I think your Gilbert is very bold to wink at a strange girl."  
  
"I wish he'd wink at me," Sara sighed and began copying down her sums.  
  
A little while later, while Sara was rereading over her subtraction, she heard little pinging noises next to her. Anne was steadily working, but Gilbert wasn't. He was flinging little pieces of paper at Anne's head trying to get her attention. Sara looked back at Anne, who was conveniently ignoring him. Gilbert got tired of his first plan, and took up a second. Sara watched, puzzled, as Gilbert reached over and yanked one Anne's now rather long red braids, whispering, eagerly, "Carrots. Carrots!"  
  
Sara turned her eyes on Anne to see what she would do. Anne was turning around, she was standing up, she was walking over to Gilbert's desk, and (uh oh) she yelled, "How dare you!" and cracked her slate down on his head and it spilt in half (slate, not head). Gilbert's mouth dropped and the class burst with laughter and exclamations. Mr. Philips ran over and grabbed Anne's shoulder and steered her to the front of the class. Sara watched horrified as Anne stood firmly with her nose held in the air defiantly and unmoving. Mr. Philips was going on and shouting at her, but Sara looked around at the class. This school clearly loved chaos, especially with a teacher like Mr. Philips. Gilbert tried to butt in saying it wasn't her fault and that he was teasing her. Mr. Philips didn't believe him and made Anne write, "Ann (he forgot to put an 'e') Shirley has a very bad temper and she must learn to control it," hundred times before leaving school. Sara was quite overwhelmed with what had just happened and she looked over at Gilbert. He was still trying to tell Mr. Philips that it was his fault. It took a long time to get everyone back into order and quiet again.  
  
Sara waited outside, leaning on a pine tree, watching Josie Pye weasel her way around Gilbert in her silly flirtatious manner. Gil was clearly waiting for Anne to come out. When Anne finally did, she walked without looking at Gilbert and straight to Sara. Sara was gripped hard by the arm, and dragged by her bosom friend away from the schoolyard. Gilbert ran up behind them.  
  
"Hey-um-Anne, look, I'm sorry if I offended you, I really didn't mean it."  
  
"Come on, Sara," Anne walked faster.  
  
"Wait, Anne, don't be mad for keeps now."  
  
"Thank you, Mr. Blythe," Anne walked still with more firmness. When Gilbert had stopped catching up with them and fell back into the background, Sara turned to Anne,  
  
"Anne, you have more nerve than a fox in a hen house. But really, Anne, you couldn't even forgive him? He's teased me a million times before and I've never heard him apologize."  
  
"He hurt my feelings excruciatingly, Sara. I know I'm skinny, homely, and freckled, I don't mind those, I can imagine them away. But I know my hair is red all the time and I've been twitted to about my hair so many times now, I just blow up whenever someone dares to tease me. And I would dearly love to be pretty without this wretched red hair."  
  
"You know, you really are very vain, Anne."  
  
"How can I be vain when I know I'm homely? I do love pretty things and it hurts me to see things that aren't, so when I look in the mirror I feel so sorrowful because I don't see anything pretty in it."  
  
Sara gave up and they walked home silently, listening to the murmur of the wind in the trees. 


	6. Chapter Six

Chapter Six  
  
Days passed. Anne would not, could not, she said forgive "the Blythe boy" for his rude comment. To her, this was more than just a statement, it was treachery. Sara tried everything to console her hardened heart, but was no comfort.  
  
"The iron has entered my soul, Sara. I will never speak to Gilbert Blythe again."  
  
Finally, to soothe Anne's troubled thoughts, Sara suggested they should arrange a time for them to have tea together. Anne assented happily at this suggestion.  
  
On Sunday afternoon in early October, Sara walked composedly over to Green Gables in her best dress, the one she normally wore for church. She smoothed it down several times as she walked. Sara liked this dress very much. It was a soft blue dress with a satin sash and puffed sleeves. Since she was the oldest, Mother had given her something special to wear to the jealousy of her younger sisters.  
  
Over the Lake of Shining Waters, and through the back garden, Sara knocked on the door.  
  
"Good afternoon, Miss Holbrook," Marilla smiled and showed her into the parlor to put her things down. Sara had brought a lovely sky blue satin parasol and her new white gloves Father had picked up in Carmody last week.  
  
Anne came in, wearing equally good clothes, though frightfully plain. Marilla obviously was more concerned in sense rather then vanity. Anne wore a gray and red plaid dress and her ruddy curls braided into two neat French braids advancing just past her shoulders. (Her hair had grown back rather quickly.)  
  
"Good day, my dear Sara," Anne took up their very polite manner they had decided to use.  
  
"And good day to you, Miss Shirley," Sara responded with the same primness.  
  
"May I take your things, Sara?"  
  
"Why, thank you," Sara handed her the parasol and gloves and Anne laid them down on the parlor bench.  
  
"Well, I've got to go Ladies' Aid, so I'll be back later before supper. Anne, don't forget to lay out Matthew's tea when he comes in from the fields."  
  
"Oh, I won't, Marilla, have a good time."  
  
Marilla left and the girls stared at each other shyly. Anne took Sara's arm and brought her into the sitting room.  
  
"How is your mother?" Anne inquired.  
  
"Oh, very nice, thank you, we've been very busy collecting apples and making preserves. Have you gotten many apples this year?"  
  
"Oh, ever so many," Anne said excitedly, losing her polite manner, "Marilla has been cooking and baking so many good things for weeks on end."  
  
There was an awkward silence.  
  
"Well, I'll go and get our biscuits. They should be ready now, as well as the tea. There are so many responsibilities for one who is hosting a guest."  
  
Sara grinned and Anne walked into the kitchen, coming back with her hands behind her back.  
  
"Now, I won't tell you what Marilla said we could have to drink, I'll just let you taste it to see how you like it. You won't have had it before," Anne pulled out a glass bottle filled with a red liquid inside.  
  
"Oh, raspberry cordial, right?"  
  
"You mean you've had it before?" asked Anne, disappointed.  
  
"Of course I have, haven't you?"  
  
"I'm afraid I've never tasted it," Anne walked over and set a large glass and the raspberry cordial on the side table next to Sara's seat.  
  
"You may have as much as you like, I'll get our preserves," Anne left and went back to the kitchen. Sara proceeded to unscrew the bottle and pour a full amount into her glass. She listened to Anne ramble on in the kitchen.  
  
"Last time I tried to make a cake, I forgot to put the flour in. I was thinking of a wonderful sad story, where you came down with small pox. And I came and nursed you back to health. Then I got the horrid disease and died. Then you buried me with a handkerchief and showered me with your tears. And you planted a beautiful rosebush by my grave. And you never forgot the friend of your youth who sacrificed her life for you. Anyway, I was just crying piteously about it and the cake was a disaster. I got a terrible scolding from Marilla, but I suppose I deserved it."  
  
Sara had drunk her first glass by this time and thought it was delicious.  
  
"This is very nice, Anne," she cried into the kitchen, "Mrs. Lynde brags about hers all the time, but Marilla's is much nicer."  
  
"Well, I must say, Marilla is famous for her cooking all throughout the Island," Anne called back.  
  
"It doesn't taste a bit like it," Sara whispered to herself, "but it's good anyhow."  
  
She poured herself another glass and drank it quite fast, then promptly began to pour a third. She licked her lips and looked around the sitting room. It started to look a little blurred. Sara moaned and put her hand to her forehead. She was starting to feel quite dizzy. Her stomach felt as if it were twisted up and squeezed. Nausea rose up and Sara leaned back on her chair and closed her eyes. She moaned and bent over, her head was spinning, why couldn't the room stop shifting around?  
  
Her thoughts were getting all confused and she began to sweat. Another moan. Oh, what's happening? Sara slowly lay herself down on the wooden floor. Her head pounded as Anne's footsteps sounded in the hallway.  
  
"Here they are-why Sara what's wrong?"  
  
Sara could faintly hear Anne's words, but they made no sense.  
  
"Oh, no, it's the small pox epidemic. Don't worry, Sara, I'll nurse you back to health. Just please stay until after tea."  
  
One thought rose in Sara's muddled mind, "Get home, get home."  
  
"I gotta go home," Sara heard herself say as she picked her body off the floor.  
  
"Oh, Sara, I'll help you, don't worry, here, get back on the couch," Anne followed Sara's trudging footsteps towards the back door. Sara dizzily walked through the garden and leaned against the gate.  
  
"Wait, Sara, wait!" she heard Anne shout, but she paid no attention and proceeded onward.  
  
To her dying day, did she ever know how she got herself safely to her house, over the bridge, through the apple orchard and through the Holbrook field. But she did, and she crawled onto the porch, exhausted. Anne ran up behind her carrying her parasol and gloves. Mrs. Holbrook and Mrs. Lynde came out from the back porch door.  
  
"Oh my goodness, Sara! Anne, what did you give my Sara to drink?" she asked angrily.  
  
"Nothing, but raspberry cordial, ma'am," Anne looked from one vexed woman to the other, confused.  
  
"Raspberry? This girl smells like she's drunk."  
  
Sara had lied down and then gave a loud belch. Mrs. Holbrook turned revolted to Anne.  
  
"Go now, Anne, how dare you set her drunk! Now go, you and Sara will never be friends again."  
  
Sara groaned, clutched her stomach, and ran to a nearby tree and vomited.  
  
Anne looked horrified and the two women watched her run back towards the orchards, then they went to pull Sara to her feet.  
  
Oh, pain. Groan. Light is too bright. Take it away. Moan. The pain is awful. Sara slowly opened her eyes and squinted them in the bright light of the sun. Sara tried to roll over, but she was too exhausted. At first, she didn't know where she was, but then her eyes focused on the window seat and she knew she was in her room. Her memory had very little recollection of her past experiences. A door creaked and Mother came in.  
  
"Oh, good, you're up. How are you feeling, dear?"  
  
Sara looked over at the shiny face of her mother.  
  
"I'm fine, I guess. What day is it?"  
  
"Well, dearest, you've been out for two days. It's Tuesday."  
  
"Wait, where's Anne?"  
  
"No where near here, thank heavens," Mother narrowed her eyes.  
  
"What?" Sara cried. She tried to get up, but the pain in her head was too great.  
  
"You are not to see Anne Shirley again. You are not to speak to her again."  
  
"WHAT?" Sara did sit up this time, much to the pounding of her head.  
  
"I'm sorry, you should not be associating with the likes of a girl who goes around setting people drunk, it's just not right, dear."  
  
"You can't do that, you can't!" Sara cried, a lump in her throat.  
  
"I already have, Marilla was here yesterday evening asking her pardon, saying it was a mistake, but I know it was on purpose. That's just what comes from adopting a child from goodness knows where-  
  
"No, please, Mother, you can't do this, please, it WAS a mistake, it wasn't her fault," Sara was now screaming at Mother, headache or no.  
  
"Please lie down now, Sara, you'll just exhaust yourself."  
  
"I DON'T CARE! I WANT ANNE BACK!" Tears were streaming down her face. "You've no idea what she's like--  
  
"Exactly, we don't know what she's like, and you must stay away from her lest she get you sick."  
  
"Mother, please, I need her, I can't bear life without her!"  
  
"Well, you'll just have to." Mother rose and left the room.  
  
Sara slumped back into the pillows and cried bitter tears. How dare she! How dare she, who can't listen to the truth! I can't live without Anne!  
  
Later, Sara awoke in the dark of the night. She must have cried herself to sleep. Her head wasn't pounding anymore and she didn't feel so exhausted, yet she couldn't have felt more horrible. She knew her mother wouldn't relent and now she'd never see Anne again. No more rambles through the woods, no more stories, no more anything. It was slipping away like pearls falling off a string, one after the other. In the morning, she decided, she'd do something. With that in her head, she lay her wet cheek on the pillow and fell into a restless sleep.  
  
When morning came, Sara rubbed her eyes and sat up. The light that would have usually made her get up and write was unwelcome. She didn't want to go to school, especially without Anne. Everyone would know about the drunken scandal by now and that was just one more mistake to add to Anne's list of big faults.  
  
Sara groaned and dressed in her school dress. She walked drowsily down the hall and started to walk down the stairs. Then she stopped short and looked down.  
  
"Ha, didn't get me this time," she said and picked up Danny's toy doll that she would have normally stepped on and fallen down the stairs.  
  
Feeling slightly better, Sara entered the kitchen with a grimace. She had to see Anne one more time, just once more to explain the situation.  
  
Mrs. Holbrook was mixing dough for this week's bread, while Mr. Holbrook was sitting at the table eating his daily toast.  
  
"Good morning, dear," Papa said, shaking the newspaper up, "You're up early."  
  
"What? What time is it?" Sara asked.  
  
"It's five-thirty, dear," Mrs. Holbrook began kneading the dough.  
  
"Oh, it's too early," Sara muttered.  
  
"What's too early?" Mrs. Holbrook asked suspiciously.  
  
"Um, well, Mum, I was wondering, could I at least say goodbye to Anne, please?"  
  
"I suppose I can't even try to argue that one out, there's just no point."  
  
Sara flew out the door. She knew it was too early, but if this was her only chance.  
  
She ran over the bridge and collapsed at the gate, gasping for breath in the cool October air. She quickly searched the windows for Anne's and found it under the east green gable, looking out at the sunrise.  
  
She grabbed a pebble and aimed at that window. She did this a couple of times until a white freckled face appeared at the window. Sara waved her arms around her head and waited for Anne to come down.  
  
When Anne came out through the gate, they looked at each other and hugged.  
  
"Your mother hasn't relented?" Anne asked, nervousness flooding her pale face.  
  
"Oh, Anne, Mother says I'm never to see you again. I've cried and cried, but she wouldn't listen. Now we can never be friends again," Sara felt hot tears flood her blue eyes. Anne grabbed her hands.  
  
"Will thou give me a lock thy black tresses?"  
  
"But I don't have any black dresses."  
  
"Well," Anne sobbed, "your hair's not black, but it'll have to do. Fortunately, I was getting a head-start on my patch-work, so I have these scissors here in my pocket."  
  
Anne cut a small curl off one of Sara's yellow locks. They hugged again.  
  
"Goodbye, Anne," Sara said, tears streaming down her face.  
  
"Goodbye. 'May we be strangers living side by side. My heart will be ever faithful to thee'."  
  
Sara clutched Anne's hand and turned to the bridge. She stood for a moment looking at it, then took off, glancing back every now and then. 


	7. Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven  
  
Mrs. Holbrook stayed true to her word. She went promptly to Mr. Philips to say that Anne and Sara should be seated at opposite sides of the room. Sara was forced to walk on the Birch Path by herself because she was closer and Anne was forced to the main road, which Sara knew gave no scope for imagination in Anne.  
  
Sara didn't like going by way of the Birch Path all by her lonesome. It was very beautiful in autumn, but what was the use of it if you didn't have your bosom friend to share it with?  
  
Mr. Philips luckily resigned by the end of October because of a student scandal in Mr. William Bell's field where no one was allowed to trespass on his private property.  
  
In the first week of November, a new teacher came. Sara was particularly excited about this because there were rumors that it was going to be woman teacher.  
  
Sara walked in that morning and sat in her usual seat in the back with Gertie Pye. She had been forced to sit there by Mr. Philips and it was torture. As she had told Jane Andrews, "Gertie always cheats. But she doesn't cheat just to cheat, she just does it because she's a Pye."  
  
Poor Anne was made to sit with Gilbert. It didn't help her "Carrots" situation in the least. In fact, Sara noticed Anne was more hostile to him. They were both rivals in all subjects, from English to history. Sara knew that Anne's one fault was geometry. But with Gilbert there, there was no problem in the least. Sara had difficulties keeping her studies up to their usual high standards, as well.  
  
On the first morning of the new teacher, the classroom buzzed with excitement. When the door opened, Sara watched with bated breath. A dark- haired woman turned to the hat stand and took off her coat and hat, then turned to face the class.  
  
"Hello, class," the new teacher had a lovely cheerful voice and a kind smile. She walked to the board and wrote Miss Muriel Stacey. "Oh, what a lovely name!" Sara thought. Anne must have thought so too because Sara heard an inward breath come from one of the front rows.  
  
"Well, I'm very glad to be here with you all. I know that you will strive for your best this year. By the end of it, I will make sure that you will all be the brightest, most imaginative students in all of Prince Edward Island."  
  
At this speech, Sara smiled inwardly. She loved Miss Stacey already and could tell that it was going to be a very interesting year.  
  
And it was. It started out very well. On Wednesdays there were field days, where they went outside and studied nature. One of the younger students, Julia Bell, found a bird's nest in one of the trees one day, and they studied that for a few hours. They also did exercises, complete with stretching and running, to be in good shape. They learned more about the history of the Island and of European history.  
  
One class during geometry, Sara was very bored, as all students are apt to be. She had been reading a novel called Ben Hur. She was right at the chariot race and couldn't wait to see how it ended. She was sure Ben- Hur would win, but she had to read it anyhow. So she conveniently propped up her math book over her Ben-Hur book and it looked as if she were studying geometry. But she got so immersed in it that her history book fell and Miss Stacey noticed. She walked over and slowly took the book out of Sara's hands. Sara gulped, while Miss Stacey said, "See me after class, Sara."  
  
At the end of the day, Sara made her way through the rows of desks to the black board.  
  
Miss Stacey handed the novel back to Sara.  
  
"Now, I'm giving this back to you because I know you won't do it again."  
  
Sara looked crestfallen, yet surprised that Miss Stacey had given her the book back.  
  
"Oh, now, Sara, you know I want to encourage you to read, but not during geometry class." Miss Stacey smiled and Sara no longer felt shy.  
  
"I just had to find out how the chariot race ended. I was so curious and geometry just didn't seem very comforting and interesting."  
  
Miss Stacey laughed, "Well, I never liked geometry either as a girl. Here, why I don't I walk you home? I've got to talk to your mother about something anyway."  
  
Sara's stomach lurched.  
  
"I haven't been with Anne at all."  
  
"It's not about that, though I have had a visit from your mother about it. Don't worry, Sara. It's good news."  
  
Sara cheered up right away and had a new kind of respect for Miss Stacey. She felt she could tell Miss Stacey anything.  
  
"I do miss Anne so much. I'm so afraid we'll never be friends again. I wish there was a way," Sara gazed out at the pine copses over the hill as they strolled down the dirt road.  
  
"Oh, there's always a bend in the road. Remember, tomorrow is always fresh with no mistakes in it."  
  
"Well, no mistakes in it yet," Sara added.  
  
"Yes," the teacher chuckled, "and about this Anne situation, don't worry about it so much, the truth will set you free."  
  
"The truth will set you free," Sara echoed dreamily, "That's lovely, Miss Stacey."  
  
"It is, isn't it? I got it from a book once."  
  
When they arrived at Holbrook farm, Sara ran ahead to open the door and set the teakettle on the stove. Mrs. Holbrook greeted Miss Stacey very nicely. Rumors flew around that Miss Stacey was the best teacher they had had in Avonlea in a long time. Resources probably from Mrs. Lynde.  
  
"I hope Sara hasn't been neglecting her studies because of Anne," Mrs. Holbrook said worriedly.  
  
"Oh, no, quite the contrary, ma'am, Sara is doing simply excellent work. Which is why I'm here, Mrs. Holbrook."  
  
At this point, Sara came in with two steaming cups of tea. Mrs. Holbrook shifted in her chair.  
  
"I was wondering, I'm starting an after-school group for those who are interested in taking the entrance for Queens College."  
  
Mrs. Holbrook gasped, "Our Sara? Oh, that would be wonderful! What do you think Sara?"  
  
Sara jumped up and clasped her hands together. This had been her dream, or at least it had been ever since she had heard Jane and Ruby talking about entering.  
  
"Oh, could I?"  
  
"Why, of course! When does it start?" Mrs. Holbrook addressed Miss Stacey, who smiled.  
  
"Next week, after-school Tuesday."  
  
"Wonderful. Sara may go, if she likes."  
  
"Very good, I'll see you there then Sara."  
  
Sara nodded and, shaking with excitement ran upstairs to her room. She hadn't written for many weeks since the absence of Anne and now she collapsed on her window seat and bent over to pull her notebook out from under the cushion. She ran out the back door and to the Dryad's Bubble. Wonderful thoughts ran through her head. She sat hurriedly on the cold grey rock and poured out her soul to the trees.  
  
And so it was set. The Queens group would include Jane Andrews, Charlie Sloane, Gilbert Blythe, Ruby Gillis, Anne Shirley, Moody Spurgeon, Josie Pye, and Sara Holbrook. The first day, everyone was very excited. They were allowed to start studying the "branches", which consisted of Latin, advanced geometry, French and algebra.  
  
Sara watched Anne struggle through her geometry and herself french. It was all very difficult, yet exciting.  
  
Weeks passed. Sara's workload did not lessen as November turned to December. Not only was she busy, but so were her parents.  
  
"Now, Sara take care of them, especially Danny, we'll be back from the seminar before supper tomorrow."  
  
"I hope you have a lovely time. Do you think you'll meet the prime minister?"  
  
"Oh, if Rachel Lynde has anything to do with it, we'll more than meet him."  
  
Sara stifled a laugh and helped her mother with her coat.  
  
"Be good, Elizabeth, get lots of rest, you look terrible worn out!" Mrs. Holbrook shouted behind her as she walked down the front steps to where Mr. Holbrook was waiting with the carriage.  
  
Sara looked over at Elizabeth, she did look rather pale.  
  
"Let's sit you down for a while, that cough hasn't sounded good lately," Sara steered her sister to the chair by the fire.  
  
"Here, to entertain yourself, you can work on your patchwork. Wait, Danny, no, don't play with that!"  
  
Sara was let alone with these five hoodlums for twenty-four hours. She wiped her forehead and proceeded into the kitchen.  
  
A little while later, a terrible rasping sound filled the air from the sitting room.  
  
Sara flew in and saw Elizabeth clutching her throat, coughing.  
  
"Are you all right, dearest?"  
  
Elizabeth, coughed a little bit and then said, "Just got something in my throat," and she smiled at Sara.  
  
Sara was unsure, but she walked back to the kitchen to finish feeding Danny. Every once and a while, she'd hear that sound. But after about five minutes, it would stop.  
  
After about six times, Elizabeth wouldn't stop coughing. Sara ran back into the sitting room for the seventh time. She tried patting her sister on the back hard, to loosen it. When that didn't work, she laid Elizabeth on the couch. Sara could tell it was getting harder and harder for her to breathe. She felt her forehead, Elizabeth's face was clammy and hot. She started to get panicky. What was it? What if...? Then she had a sudden inspiration.  
  
"Peter!" she screamed. Peter came running down the stairs and slipped on Danny's toy doll. He fell and flipped to the bottom.  
  
"Damn those toys!" he cried, rubbing his bottom.  
  
"Peter!" Sara cried, surprised, then, "Come on, Elizabeth's sick. I think it's the croup, and I'm gonna get help. Stay with her!"  
  
Sara grabbed her coat, scarf, gloves and hat, and pulled on her boots. Then she ran over the fields into the cold night air. The snow was falling thickly and the apple orchards and Idlewild would have looked quite frightening if Sara hadn't been so worried. She stumbled over the frozen bridge and into the backyard of Green Gables. She knew Marilla had gone to the seminar as well, but Anne and Matthew were sure to be there.  
  
She burst into the warm, bright Green Gables kitchen.  
  
"Anne! Anne!" she cried. Anne came rushing into the kitchen with Matthew following behind her. His stone grey hair fell to his shoulders and his old features were fixed into a worried expression.  
  
"Has your mother relented?" Anne asked excitedly.  
  
"No, but Elizabeth's awful sick with the croup and we don't know what to do."  
  
Matthew turned and went quickly into the parlor and out the front door.  
  
"Matthew went to the doctor," Anne said, grabbing her coat, "We're such kindred spirits, I can read his thoughts."  
  
Anne rushed over to the medicine cabinet and grabbed a bottle labeled Ipecac. "I know just what to do for the croup."  
  
They ran outside into the snow.  
  
"When I was at Mrs. Hammond's," Anne shouted while she ran, "all the twins had croup regularly, and it was I who nursed them, Sara."  
  
They reached Holbrook farm and ran into the back door.  
  
"Peter, how's she doing?" Sara didn't stop to take off her coat. Anne knelt down and felt Elizabeth's pulse, throat and forehead.  
  
"She's pretty bad. But I've seen worse."  
  
She unscrewed the bottle and slowly poured some liquid down her throat.  
  
"Sara, go and boil some water on the stove. And Peter, you get a change of clothes and wash-cloths."  
  
All the siblings were in there now, watching, with big eyes at the sick girl. Katie checked periodically out the window for the doctor, but always came back shaking her head.  
  
Into the night, they waited and took care of Elizabeth. Anne shouted out instructions and they followed blindly, extremely worried.  
  
At about half past three in the morning, when Elizabeth had quieted down and Katie, Danny, and Teddy had fallen asleep, there was a creak and the front door opened to Matthew and a doctor.  
  
Matthew told Anne he had to go all the way to Carmody to find one, everyone was at the seminar.  
  
"I gave her the last of the medicine an hour ago. It wasn't until she coughed up the phlegm, that she really began to improve," Anne looked over the doctor and Matthew. The doctor rushed over to Elizabeth, now sleeping on the couch. He checked her pulse and her temperature. He turned warily to the exhausted Anne and Sara by the fire and gave a sigh.  
  
"She would have been gone by the time I got here. You saved this little girl's life."  
  
Sara gripped Anne's shoulder in relief. She pulled Anne into a hard hug.  
  
"Thank you, thank you," she whispered into her ear. 


	8. Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight  
  
Mr. and Mrs. Holbrook came home accordingly before supper the following day. Sara hurriedly told them the whole story with Elizabeth next to her, nodding and gesticulating. Mrs. Holbrook was devastated at her own behavior towards Anne.  
  
"I'm so sorry, Sara, I will make it up to her if it's the last thing I do," Mrs. Holbrook hugged Sara.  
  
"You should be telling this to Anne, not me," Sara said, overflowing with happiness.  
  
"I know, I know," Mother wiped her eyes, "I know what we'll do. We'll take her along with us when we go to the annual Christmas ball this year. Then she may spend the night." Sara jumped for joy.  
  
"But first, we'll invite Anne over for supper to tell her all about it, to see if she may go. Why, I'll go over myself this very minute. It's not suppertime yet; it's only two o'clock. Yes, I'll go myself." Mrs. Holbrook grabbed her coat and scarf and set off on her mission.  
  
Sara sighed and smiled out at the falling snow. A line from somewhere floated through her mind, 'Tomorrow is always fresh with no mistakes in it yet.' Now, everything was all right again. She sat looking out over the fields, dreaming, and thinking of the wonderful times she and Anne were going to have, making up for time gone by. Lovely romps in the snowy twilight, sleigh rides, walks to school again, and the Christmas ball. Oh, yes, the Christmas ball, that will be the high moment of the season.  
  
"Hello, stranger," a voice said behind her and Sara whirled around to come face to face with Anne Shirley.  
  
"Oh, Anne, we can be bosom friends again. We never have to be apart!" Sara hugged her friend around the middle.  
  
"But, dearest, we were never really apart. 'Friends are always together in spirit.' Especially kindred spirits."  
  
Sara grinned. It had to be the best Christmas ever.  
  
  
  
"Oh, Anne, it's beautiful," Sara felt the soft material in her fingers and twirled the dress around.  
  
"I'm so glad Marilla decided to let me go. It was really Matthew who put her up to it. And then he bought me this beautiful dress with puffed sleeves." She emphasized the puffed sleeves part because of course the puffed sleeves were the crowning glory.  
  
"Marilla says I'll have to walk sideways to get through the doors, but I don't care. I was too happy to take any of her silly sarcasm."  
  
The lovely dress was a filmy green with a soft satin sash and little embroidery roses on the edge. The sleeves were indeed puffed, with the latest fashion, and it came with a pale green ribbon to match.  
  
The girls were getting ready in Sara's room for what promised to be a glorious night. Sara prepared her new dress, which was of the palest pink. "Like a tiny baby rosebud," Anne had said. She, too, had puffed sleeves with a lace collar and for her hair, a rose with a blend of color no other rose could win over. Sara gave Anne pretty kid slippers for Christmas, which came in useful for the ball that night. Anne also had a flower to tie in her hair. Mrs. Holbrook had provided her a spray of white lily-of-the- valley. Anne, accordingly, put them in her hair and looked in the mirror.  
  
"It's too bad this flower makes my face look so pale. The freckles stand out even more. But I'll just continue pinching my cheeks to make a blush of color in them."  
  
Sara pulled the sash tight on Anne and tied it in a small bow. Anne turned around and Sara gasped.  
  
"Oh, Anne, it really is beautiful. Red-heads are meant to wear green."  
  
"And fair-haired to wear pink. It's too bad redheads can't wear pink, it is the loveliest color. I hope someday if I have a daughter, she'll have nut brown curls, so she can wear pink."  
  
Sara giggled and tied her own sash. She pinned the rose into her French braids that were twisted into two hoops on the sides of her head, just above her ear. Then helped Anne with her flowers. The lily-of-the-valley flowers blossoms were stuck securely in Anne's hair, which was half pulled up into a clip.  
  
The two girls surveyed each other in the mirror.  
  
"We are angels, aren't we?" Anne grinned at her reflection. Mrs. Holbrook came in looking very regal in purple and a smart-looking hat and furs.  
  
"You too look beautiful, now let's go, the carriage is waiting outside."  
  
The sleigh, more-like, was festooned with holly and jingle bells. They sang carols loudly as they packed into the three rows of cushions stuck neatly together on their benches. Even Danny and Teddy were there in their tiny little suits and ties. The twins looked grand in red and blue. Elizabeth looking very healthy now and flushed in her red velvet dress. Katie in her soft blue gown, laughed joyously at Peter joking and singing.  
  
When they were all packed into the sleigh, coats, mufflers, gloves, hats and all, they were off, the bells jingling merrily and the snow falling softly. They talked and sang with each other into the silence of the night.  
  
"This is what I would call an epoch in my life," Anne said to Sara, gazing at the happy crowd of people. Sara couldn't agree more.  
  
They arrived in due time. Sara grabbed Anne's arm in excitement as they proceeded into the grand hall. The orchestra played loudly and there was a table for refreshments in the corner. Many couples were dancing a waltz out on the dance floor. There was a small stage on the right where the orchestra was playing. A chandelier hung in grand display in the middle of the ceiling. Sara saw Gilbert dancing with Josie over on the other side. Anne must have seen too because she narrowed her eyes.  
  
"Here, girls, these are your dance cards, be sure to get a dance," Mrs. Holbrook handed them two white cards with a little ribbon attached. They each had their names written on them in lovely script, "Have a good time."  
  
Sara hurried to take off her coat and get to the dance floor. Anne followed.  
  
"Look at Gilbert dancing with Josie, he doesn't look too happy to be dancing with her. And, ooh, I'm going to wear my hair just like Alice Bell's when I'm older. But she's only seventeen, and I think she looks ridiculous. I'm going to wait until I'm eighteen," Sara looked around at the couples dancing.  
  
"Anne, look, Gilbert stopped dancing and he's talking to someone. You shouldn't have been so horrible to him, he might have asked you to dance. I bet you couldn't get him to dance with you."  
  
"All right, Sara, you're on," Anne spoke for the first time since they got there and walked firmly towards Gilbert, pinching her cheeks. Sara watched from her spot. Anne started talking to Gilbert, but Gilbert ignored her, talking to an older woman. The woman left and Gilbert leaned against the punch table, gazing at everyone except for Anne. Anne got a glass of punch and tried unsuccessfully to talk to him. Sara walked over.  
  
Gilbert saw her coming and walked over to her, grabbing her hands, "Hello, Sara, this place is great, isn't it? You have a merry Christmas."  
  
"Merry Christmas to you too, Gilbert," Sara replied, looking after him, confused, as he walked away.  
  
"How can you wish that person a merry Christmas?" Anne asked disgusted. Sara looked back at her guiltily.  
  
"I take it that person didn't ask you to dance after all," Sara took her hands, "Well, if he won't, may I have the honor?"  
  
Anne brightened up jovially, "Why, of course!"  
  
And they twirled around, laughing, across the dance floor. As they were dancing, Sara noticed Gilbert walk over to the punch table and pick up a slim piece of paper. It was Anne's dance card. She must have left it there when she took the glass of punch. Looking around, Gilbert slipped it into his coat pocket. Sara thought nothing of it, until they were back twirling around to the music of the record player in the sitting room in their nightgowns.  
  
"Anne, I think Gilbert took your dance card," she said, gasping for breath from laughing as the music ended.  
  
"Oh, let him keep it, I don't care."  
  
"Hey, Mother says we can sleep in the spare room bed tonight because you're the guest."  
  
"Oh, how wonderful! I've always loved sleeping in spare rooms, they sounded so grand. But I've never slept in one, so I wouldn't know," Anne collapsed on the couch.  
  
"Hey," she said, "let's race to the room to see who gets the warm side of the bed!"  
  
Sara giggled and sprang up from her chair.  
  
"Ready, one..two..three!" The girls ran up the stairs and to the right, burst through the door and jumped at the same time onto the lumpy covers. Lumpy?  
  
A groan came from in between the pillows and an old woman sat up, staring grumpily at them, in her nightcap and dressing gown.  
  
"Aunt Josephine!" Sara gasped, "Mother said you weren't coming till next week."  
  
"Well, I'm here and trying to get some sleep!" The two girls stood, transfixed and shivering, in their nightgowns.  
  
"How dare you! Can't an old woman get some sleep anywhere? I suppose not with two hoodlums like you. Well, I'll be writing to your mother, Sara, about the music lessons I was going to pay for. You need a little lesson in behavior than in music, young lady! Now get out, and let a poor woman get her beauty sleep!"  
  
Sara and Anne walked swiftly back downstairs and sat rigidly on the parlor bench.  
  
"Oh, dear, I'm always making mistakes aren't I?" Anne shook her head at the floor, "I'll just have to have a talk with her in the morning."  
  
"Oh, Anne, don't. She'll eat you alive," Sara whispered softly.  
  
"Oh, I've had lots of practice apologizing before. Don't worry, I'll get your music lessons back."  
  
There was a pause.  
  
"But wasn't her face so funny?" Anne laughed suddenly and made a face, pretending to gasp. Sara giggled.  
  
"Well, I suppose there had to be a little bit of adventure to color the evening a bit. But I must tell you, without the spare bed, you'll have to sleep on the window seat in my room."  
  
"Oh, I don't care, I'll stay awake imagining things to say to your Aunt Josephine tomorrow anyway."  
  
With a sigh, they pulled their tired bodies up to Sara's room and went quickly to sleep. 


	9. Chapter Nine

1 Chapter Nine  
  
Sara bit her lip. Her ears were pressed to the door, listening with all her might trying to hear the conversation that was going on, on the other side. She didn't dare breathe for fear it would break the silence. Then all of a sudden, she heard a chuckle and she gasped with relief. She heard Anne's footsteps coming to the door and she quickly stepped back.  
  
"I did it, Sara, you have your music lessons back. You know, you wouldn't think of it to look at her, but your aunt Josephine is definitely a kindred spirit. In exchange for the music lessons, we're both going to visit her when we take the entrance exam for Queens in Charlottetown next month."  
  
"Oh, how do you always do it? Anne, you are wonderful, you really are."  
  
"I don't think I'm all that, but I do have a knack for apologizing, it seems."  
  
Sara gave her a hug and went in to see Miss Josephine Holbrook. Now in the light, you could see her much better. Aunt Josephine was tall, thin, prim, and rigid, but she had a merry expression on her face, which looked as if it hadn't been used often enough.  
  
"Thank you, Aunt Jo," Sara curtsied.  
  
"Oh, no harm done here, girl, your Anne-girl friend has completely changed my mind about children your age. You're very lucky to have a girl like her."  
  
Sara couldn't help but smile and throw her arms around the old lady.  
  
  
  
The entrance exams were coming up, no doubt of that, for Miss Stacey drilled them with difficult practice tests every afternoon spent at school. Sara still struggled with her French verbs and phrases and Anne suffered cruelly with geometry. She watched scornfully in class at Gilbert, who must had been a mathematician in another life. Sara felt pity for both her friend and Gilbert. Anne had not given up her rivalry against him. Sara noticed that Gilbert seemed to take the challenge of competition jovially. He seemed to think that Anne would get off her high airs sometime. Sara knew that Anne was nowhere near forgiveness. It probably didn't even cross her mind.  
  
Christmas passed and the long stretch of winter was ahead. It was difficult walking to school through the thickly covered, snowy Birch Path. The trees were like reaching spiders against the cold, grey sky and the grounds were barren of any greenery save the stray twigs across the path. The beginning of February was their entrance exam.  
  
Sara's birthday passed in January with lovely flying colors. She was fourteen and felt very grown up. Anne seemed to be crumbling under the strain of work, but still trudged through the snow to give Sara a beautiful satin hair ribbon.  
  
"Well, dearest, it's the week before exams and I feel terrible worn out," Anne sighed and closed her math book, "I feel if I did another geometry problem, my head would be liable to explode."  
  
Sara agreed. She, herself, felt quite overwhelmed with all those stupid "nous's" and "Je ne sais pas's."  
  
February came too quickly, for Sara's liking. Miss Stacey told them all to be on time for the exam, which was to be at Queens itself. Mr. Holbrook had offered to bring Sara and Anne over the day before in order to stay with Aunt Josephine.  
  
"Here, Anne, I'll help you with that," Sara jumped down from the buggy to grab Anne's little carpet bag and put it safely behind the seats.  
  
"Thanks, but if I don't hold it the right way, the handle pulls out. I mastered it coming here from Nova Scotia and the asylum to Green Gables. It's a very old carpet bag."  
  
Anne put her bag behind the seat and was hoisted up to next to Sara by Mr. Holbrook. They bundled up in blankets while the cold wind stung their faces. It was a thirty mile drive, but they'd keep themselves warm by chatting with all their might and main.  
  
When the Charlottetown sign finally came into view, the wind had died down and snow had started to fall. The stars glistened in the velvety black night sky. Little puffs of air blew from underneath the heap of blankets in the back seat.  
  
"Jane Andrews said she's coming tomorrow to stay at a hotel for a couple of days and Ruby Gillis is coming with Moody Spurgeon and his father. Gilbert-  
  
Anne coughed loudly in the middle of Sara's speech and Sara kept all subjects that involved Gilbert in her head instead of on her tongue.  
  
"Here it is, girls," Mr. Holbrook pointed to a huge building on the left as they turned in at the gate. Sara gasped. Even though Josephine Holbrook was her great-aunt, she had never been to her house. She knew that Aunt Jo was rather wealthy, but she didn't know that she was this wealthy.  
  
"Oh my word," Anne looked up at the tall towers, well, not really towers, but in her poverty-stricken eyes they were.  
  
"This mansion looks so lonesome and uncomfortable. It's no wonder your aunt Josephine doesn't have any imagination. That's one consolation about being poor, you have to dream all this up."  
  
"Aunt Jo told you she didn't have any imagination?" Sara asked bewildered by the high stone walls.  
  
"Yes, she said at her age imagination is a threat to life, but I'm not sure I understood what she meant."  
  
Sara giggled and took her father's hand as he helped her down from the carriage.  
  
They walked up the stone steps, passing great statues of stone lions. Mr. Holbrook rang the bell. A young girl answered the door, who was undoubtedly a maid.  
  
"Ah, yes, Miss Holbrook is expecting you," the girl gave a shy smile. Miss Josephine Holbrook came down the grand staircase on the left and hugged them all.  
  
"Why, you're all so much better looking than when I last saw you," she laughed.  
  
"Well, I don't think I have as many freckles, but my hair is still red," Anne gave a sigh and grinned. Sara smiled with a shine in her eyes as she watched Anne pull on her ruddy braids.  
  
"I've decided to put you in my sparest of spare rooms, how's that Anne- girl?"  
  
"That would be splendid, Aunt Jo," Anne laughed, handing her bag to the maid.  
  
"You must be real tired. Are you going to cram for your exam tonight?"  
  
"No, Miss Stacey made us promise not to open a book, so we don't get the jitters. We're very nervous," Sara replied.  
  
"Well, then, we can have a nice leisurely supper after all. And after your examinations tomorrow, I have wonderful surprise planned," Miss Holbrook smiled, "Here, Maggie will show you to your room to freshen up."  
  
The girl who answered the door gestured for Sara and Anne to follow her up the grand shiny staircase. Mr. Holbrook said goodbye and good luck and left. Sara and Anne kept turning their heads, not wanting to miss anything.  
  
When supper was over and the girls were in their nightgowns, they climbed into the soft feather bed and talked for a bit.  
  
"I'm so nervous, Anne."  
  
"I'm just afraid that I won't do well. I'd rather not pass at all than come out somewhere in the middle. And it would be horrible if."  
  
"-Gilbert came first?" Sara asked. Anne was silent, staring at the ceiling.  
  
  
  
Queens college was an old-fashioned building with stone walls and large grounds. Several groups of students were scattered about the front lawn as Anne and Sara entered through the gate, which read "Queens College of Charlottetown" across the wrought-iron bars.  
  
Sara gulped and stepped up the front stairs with Anne grasping her hand. She saw Charlie Sloane and Gilbert Blythe down the long hallway and heard Anne exhale through her nose and saw her hold her head up high.  
  
"Good luck!" Gilbert waved jovially as they passed through the door to a large classroom, where Miss Stacey and other teachers were waiting in a line of chairs in the front near the board. Sara and Anne picked seats near Jane and Ruby and waited with bated breath.  
  
A tall, young teacher passed out the exam papers. Another older teacher spoke to the students from the front desk. Sara took up her pencil and began to write furiously. Anne did as well. The old teacher was speaking again.  
  
"Please do not write on the exams until you are bidden to do so. If you start before, you will be disqualified from the test completely."  
  
Sara slowly put down her pencil guiltily, looking around. Anne did too. A bell rang softly from somewhere and the teacher said, "Begin."  
  
Sara didn't know time could rush by so quickly, for soon she was handing in the paper and walking out of the school with Anne by her side. They met Miss Stacey out on the front steps.  
  
"Oh, I'm so glad that's over. I felt just like I did last year when I asked Marilla if I was to stay at Green Gables," Anne gave a sigh that seemed to come from her toes.  
  
"Well, the worst part is over. I was worried in the beginning, I could see you two turning green," Miss Stacey laughed and hugged the two of them, "Well, you've gotten through the first, most difficult part. And you enjoy your week off from school."  
  
"Thank you Miss Stacey," the girls replied and walked with a lighter step and happier spirits to Aunt Josephine's awaiting carriage.  
  
"Here is your table, madam and girls," the waiter pulled three chairs out from under a table covered in a silk white tablecloth. Anne and Sara sat across from each other and Aunt Jo sat in the middle. They ordered their meals and sat talking about the day.  
  
"Well, what do you think of your surprise?" Aunt Jo asked the girls who kept looking around the big, glorious room of the restaurant.  
  
"It's wonderful," Sara leaned over and kissed the old lady's cheek.  
  
"Unforgettably," Anne squeezed Aunt Jo's hand.  
  
"And what do you think of this stylish lifestyle?"  
  
"I don't know," Sara replied, "I think I'd like it for a while, but give me old Avonlea anyday."  
  
"I agree," Anne said, "I think I like the sound of the wind through the fir trees, more than the tinkling of crystal."  
  
Miss Holbrook laughed.  
  
"Well, you'll be home tomorrow, but you must come and visit often when you come to Queens, it will be wonderful."  
  
"Are you lonely, Aunt Jo?" Sara asked.  
  
"Oh, sometimes. An old maid usually is. I never married because men didn't want me badly, they just wanted my money badly and I didn't agree to their opinions. Money is not really what it seems, my dears, don't let it get to your innocent heads. It will indeed ruin it." 


	10. Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten  
  
"I've had a splendid time," Sara concluded happily, "and I feel that it marks an epoch in my life, as Anne says. But the best of it all was the coming home." She told Mother the whole story of their adventures in Charlottetown and of the exams.  
  
It felt wonderful to be back with Elizabeth, Katie, Peter, Teddy, and Danny, even though they were nuisances sometimes. Anne seemed to be happy too. Miss Stacey had given them a week off for recovering from the exams. But there was no recovering in the Holbrook house. There was only impatience for the pass list.  
  
"What if I didn't even make it on the list?" Sara asked fearfully of Anne, twiddling her thumbs.  
  
"I feel that I'll pass, but I shall be on the bottom of the list. I believe that I messed my geometry part up horribly." Anne looked out the window.  
  
"Anything from the post office yet?" Anne asked flopping down on Sara's window seat.  
  
"No, Father will probably get the newspaper early because he works in Carmody. So I'll tell you the news as soon as I get it."  
  
"All right, but if I've failed just tell me, don't try to break it to me gently. And don't sympathize with me either. And besides, maybe a foreign missionary would be a more interesting job than a teacher."  
  
"You won't fail, I've got this strange feeling that we'll pass alright." Sara assured her friend.  
  
And pass they did. Sara grabbed the newspaper from her father in shock and flew down over the orchards to Green Gables.  
  
"Oh, Anne, we've all passed our entire class! But you and Gilbert are tied for first place!"  
  
"First out of all two hundred!?" Anne cried in disbelief, "what about you?"  
  
"Well, I'm second place. That's not bad at all."  
  
"Not bad? That's second out of all two hundred!"  
  
"Well, technically third because Gilbert is also first place."  
  
"Oh, it doesn't matter about him. I don't consider him part of this."  
  
Sara narrowed her eyes. "Of course he matters. Don't cast him away because he was just as successful as you were. I don't think it's right for you to be carrying grudges."  
  
"I know it's not right, Sara, but I can't help it. He DID hurt my feelings."  
  
"That was last year. You are very stubborn Anne."  
  
"I know, I know, and I don't care. Please let's talk about something else. Something pleasant. We should be celebrating for our achievements because we're going to Queens College."  
  
"Well, technically, it's not a college. We're going to get prepared for college in later years. It's like a step higher than Avonlea school."  
  
"You really are picking for a quarrel today, aren't you? Come, dearest, let's take a ramble up through Lover's Lane. It may be snowy, but it will be well enough to reform your muddled mind to a free one. Trust me."  
  
So they went. Sara admitted that she felt much less disgruntled when she returned to the warmth of the Holbrook kitchen.  
  
"Congratulations, Sara dear," Mrs. Holbrook looked up from her boiling pot on the stove, "I can't believe that my little Sara is going to Queens Academy next year."  
  
Sara couldn't help but smile.  
  
Winter passed in great dollops. Anne and Sara didn't have to do much work that season because now that they were going to Queens and kept their studies diligently throughout the next two months. Anne's birthday passed in March. She was finally fourteen as well.  
  
"It's seems so strange to be fourteen. I woke up this morning feeling that something must be different. You've been fourteen to two months so you're used to it, but I feel so grown-up. Twenty seems like a green old age, doesn't it?"  
  
Before Sara knew it, spring came again with its lovely vivid colors especially in Violet Vale, where purple was spread luxuriously over the fields. The Birch Path was frosted with wild flowers and Sara and Anne were sure the wood nymphs were coming out behind the girls in their walks, but never seen.  
  
On one particular beautiful day towards the beginning of summer, where the sun shone in the ethereal blue of sky, Ruby Gillis had a birthday party. She invited everyone in the Queens class and all the others in the Avonlea school class.  
  
Sara and Anne walked over to the Gillis estate together, talking excitedly.  
  
"Hey there girls!" Ruby yelled over to them, gesturing them over to the crowd of boys and girls. Sara and Anne both dropped their tiny parcels for Ruby in the growing pile on the picnic table.  
  
First the group went picking for Mayflowers in the Gillis' field. They offered each other bouquets of mayflowers. Sara received one from all of her girlfriends. Anne welcomed all her bouquets from her friends as well, except for one, which she threw scornfully to the ground. Sara looked at the tall boy with the dark hair who had given Anne the dejected bouquet and sighed.  
  
Next, the boys and girls went back to Ruby's garden and the popular game of "daring" started. Ruby dared Jane Andrews to hop around the garden on one foot without stopping to put the other foot down. Jane started and gave up on the third corner. Jane dared Anne Shirley to climb to a certain point on the willow tree. Sara did this quite easily, having the advantage of her long limbs. Anne dared Josie to walk the edge of the picket fence. Josie did this easily, this being one of the only talents Josie seemed to possess. Josie jumped down with a graceful leap and looked triumphantly into Anne's freckled face. Sara walked over next to Anne. Surprising herself, she took a deep breath.  
  
"I don't think it's a very big accomplishment to walk a little picket fence. Why I knew of a girl in Marysville who could walk the ridgepole of a roof."  
  
"I don't believe it," Josie turned to Sara, looking down over her long nose, "you certainly couldn't little miss bookworm."  
  
"Oh couldn't I?" Sara couldn't believe what she was saying.  
  
"I dare you, I dare you to walk the ridgepole of the Gillis' kitchen roof." Josie folded her arms. Sara gulped and looked up at the roof. It didn't look too high, but still, she didn't have the greatest balance in the world.  
  
"Oh, don't do it, Sara, it's not a fair dare," Anne grasped Sara's arm, but Sara made up her mind. She wasn't going to be a coward all her life. She wouldn't let a girl like Josie Pye walk all over her! She wasn't! Sara turned and began to climb up the ladder leaning against the roof. Everybody watched with fearful eyes. Gilbert looked over at Anne, but Anne was in awe of Sara's determination. Sara looked down at the crowd of boys and girls. She saw Gilbert looking over at Anne and Anne conveniently ignoring him. Oh, how far away everything was from up here! Sara climbed up the side of the roof and to the point. She slowly straightened herself and steadied her feet on the thin line that was the ridgepole. Could she go through with this? She gulped again and started. Okay, so far so good. She edged slowly along, careful not to look down at Josie and Anne and Gilbert, they were so distracting. Okay, halfway there. Three-quarters. Almost ther-  
  
Sara lost her footing and tumbled down the side of the roof and collapsed onto the Virginia creeper. Anne ran over and fell down to her knees next to her friend. Everyone moved around her. Sara slowly opened her eyes and saw Anne kneeling over her.  
  
"Oh, Sara, are you killed? Say one word and tell me if you are killed!"  
  
"I'm alright, but I think I will be rendered unconscious." And with that, everything went black. 


	11. Chapter Eleven

Chapter Eleven  
  
A soft murmuring was all around. Sara dared not open her eyes. She felt the hard ground underneath her, yet she did not know why she was there. Why was she here, in this unfamiliar place? She should be home. And what was that bright shining thing above her? Sara tried to reach up to it, but her arms seemed to be made of lead. Slowly, she opened her eyes.  
  
The murmuring grew louder and someone gasped. The bright thing stationed above Sara's head appeared to be Anne's white, white face.  
  
"Oh, Sara, you've awakened," Anne gasped with relief, "Try to stand up."  
  
Sara was pulled up by strong hands and was placed on her feet. Her left ankle collapsed beneath her and she crumpled back down to the grass, yielding a sharp cry of pain.  
  
"I think I sprained my ankle," she said, looking up at the many faces staring down at her.  
  
"What's going on, what's going on?" Mrs. Gillis then appeared on the scene and the crowd parted to let her through. "Oh, my, Sara, what happened?"  
  
"I was.um.dared to walk the ridgepole, and.I fell and I think I've sprained my ankle." Sara bit her lip and glanced down at the deformed bone.  
  
"Oh, what a silly thing to do. I don't understand why anyone on Earth would walk ridgepole, dare or no dare."  
  
"Well, I said I thought I sprained my ankle. I might have broken my neck. Let us look on the bright side of things."  
  
Mrs. Gillis sniffed and said, "Well, you'd better get yourself home safely and send for the doctor."  
  
The crowd of boys and girls dispersed. Gilbert walked up to Anne, who was helping Sara to her feet.  
  
"Let me help you, I've got the buggy in the back," he looked over Sara's condition, "It looks like she can't walk very far."  
  
"She can walk fine, thank you very much, and now if you please, we need to get home."  
  
Anne grasped Sara's shoulder. Sara looked at her in disbelief. "What do you think you're doing?" she hissed.  
  
"Please, let me bring you two home, I'm going your way," Gilbert pleaded.  
  
"No, I think we're going the opposite direction," Anne pulled the reluctant Sara closer to her side. Gilbert sighed and walked away. Sara looked back at him.  
  
"Anne, what are you playing at? We're not going in the opposite direction. And I don't think I can walk far, like he said."  
  
"I know you are in peril, and I'd do anything to help you, even cut off my own foot if it would do you any good, but not at the hands of Gilbert Blythe."  
  
"I can't believe you," Sara said angrily, "I can't walk an inch further and you know that. Now, please, I need a ride to my house and I'm not going a step further until you get me one."  
  
Anne was gazing at her with her mouth open.  
  
"Alright, alright, there's Mr. Gillis, I'll tell him. Luckily Gilbert has already left."  
  
Sara sighed and watched her walk away, feeling a little guilty. But, why should she feel guilty? It was Anne who couldn't give up grudges right?  
  
"Come, dearest, the buggy's ready," Anne steered her slowly towards the front of the house. Mr. Gillis picked Sara up and sat her in the back seat next to Anne and started off down the road. No one spoke. The silence was dreadful; Sara had to say something.  
  
"Anne, I'm really sorry about flying out at you. I feel awful for offending you. I'm not sure I agree with your grudges, but I won't let that ruin our friendship." She stopped, waiting breathlessly for Anne's reply. Anne turned to her and her face was glistening with tears.  
  
"Oh, I'm sorry too. I know it was silly of me to think that you could walk all the way home in your condition. I shouldn't let my ignorance to someone get in the way of our friendship." She smiled and grasped Sara's hand.  
  
Sara's predictions of her sprained ankle were half-true. Her ankle was broken and she would be laid up for six weeks. It was quite fortunate that she could write and that she had an imagination. She knew it would have been quite difficult without one.  
  
Not that she needed to use it much. She had many visitors. Anne came every afternoon after school and told of the lessons and the happenings of the other Avonlea girls. Jane and Ruby were frequent visitors as well, keeping her occupied with new ways to stitch lace for aprons and some kind of needlepoint that was very fashionable. Even Josie came by. She felt extremely sorry for what she had done. As Sara told Anne, "She actually has some room for compassion in that disagreeable heart of hers. It's nice to know that you can always find a piece of good in everyone."  
  
Sara kept up her writing and reading. Her father got her some poetry books from Carmody to keep her busy. She had many favorites including "The Lady of Shalott" by Tennyson, "The Splendor Falls," also by Tennyson, and some of Kipling and Emerson.  
  
There was one poem that inspired her to keep up her writing. The poem was lovely, but the last verse stood out the brightest.  
  
"Then whisper, blossom, in thy sleep  
  
How I may upward climb  
  
The Alpine Path, so hard, so steep,  
  
That leads to heights sublime.  
  
How I may reach that far-off goal  
  
Of true and honored fame  
  
And write upon its shining scroll  
  
A woman's humble name."  
  
Sara read over this poem every day and vowed that she would reach the top of her Alpine Path one day.  
  
Spring flew past very quickly and summer blossomed with its bright, fiery sunsets and green, green hilltops and fields full of Black-eyed Susan's, mayflowers, and exquisite little pink rosebuds.  
  
At last, in the middle of July, Sara was allowed to get out of the house. When she first opened the porch door to the fresh air, she breathed in deep. It felt so good to be out of her room. She and Anne had a picnic at Idlewild, picking apples by the dozen, eating most of them. Sara read aloud all the poems she loved best, stopping briefly after the line "the haunting elfin music of the air," and gazing up at the puffy white clouds.  
  
"That's my favorite line," she said, "it gives me such a thrill and there's a tingle that runs up my spine." Anne smiled.  
  
"Here, let's make flower wreaths, the mayflowers and pink roses will look lovely against that blush of color in your cheeks. I'm so glad you're well again. It was very lonely to have to go through the Birch Path alone. And let me read some of your poems, I've heard from your mother that that's all you do, really."  
  
Sara shyly handed Anne her precious notebook. Anne opened the cover and skimmed through the pages, commenting every few lines.  
  
"Oh, I like this one: 'Sail onward, ships-white wings, sail on, till past the horizon's purple bar.' And this: 'Lap softly purple waves. I dream, and dreams are sweet-I'll wake no more.' Oooh, this one as well: 'from the purple gates of the west I come.' Well, I think you like the word 'purple,' don't you?"  
  
Sara giggled, "It's such a delightful word. It sounds so beautiful when used in a poem."  
  
"I like the word purple too, it's got a ring to it, doesn't it?" Anne went back to looking over the poems.  
  
"One of my favorites comes to mind when I read these. It goes like this:  
  
"The gods talk in the breath of the world,  
  
They talk in the shaken pine,  
  
And they fill the reach of the old seashore  
  
With dialogue divine;  
  
And the poet who overhears  
  
One random word they say  
  
Is the fated man of men  
  
Whom the ages must obey."  
  
It offers such scope for the imagination, doesn't it? I love it and I wish I could be that one person who overhears that 'random word'."  
  
"So would I. I cannot wait to go to Queens. Think of the friends we'll make and the teachers we'll have, and we'll be teachers ourselves. That seems hardly imaginable. I feel that I can make a step on the Alpine Path at Queens though." Sara picked another apple thoughtfully.  
  
"It's nice to have ambitions. Just as soon as you attire to one, you see another glittering higher still," Anne sighed.  
  
"Oh, I have to go, I can hear Mother calling and, my goodness, it's past twilight. I wish we could have caught the transformation between day and evening. But such moments never are caught, I suppose."  
  
*A/N - The poems in this chapter are from Emily of New Moon. 


	12. Chapter Twelve

Chapter Twelve  
  
"Got everything? We've got to hurry. Father wants to make it back to Avonlea today," Sara grabbed Anne's last trunk and set it in the back of the buggy. It was early morning in September and they were getting ready to leave for Charlottetown and Queens. The summer had flown past quite quickly with preparations and extra studying and packing. And now the important day was here. That long-awaited day that Sara dreamed of many a sunny morning. Anne climbed up next to Sara after saying tearful good-byes to Marilla and Matthew. Sara had done hers earlier before the break of dawn, kissing the foreheads of all her sleeping siblings and a warm hug from her mother. They started off through the mist and glow of sunrise.  
  
"I've often dreamed of this moment," Sara reflected, looking longingly behind them as they crossed over the Island's red cliffs, "It seemed so wonderful then, but now that it's here, I can't bear the thought of leaving."  
  
"I suppose since you've lived here longer than I have, I can't exactly feel the way you do. But I shall miss just as much." Anne agreed, following Sara's gaze towards the fiery horizon.  
  
"It's lucky that we're able to board together, Jane and Ruby are boarding with relatives, but Josie is still trying to find board."  
  
"Well, I hope she doesn't find our boarding house to be a comfortable one, I don't know whether someone as disagreeable as her could be livable."  
  
"You can't really tell if a person's livable or not unless you've summered and wintered with them, I guess."  
  
"Well, Sara, I guess we'll find out, won't we? I mean, you are livable, aren't you?"  
  
"As aforesaid, you haven't summered and wintered with me yet."  
  
Looking back, that ride had seemed incredibly fast. But the anticipation during it made it seem much slower at the time. Once at Charlottetown, the girls said their farewells to Mr. Holbrook and set up the stairs to their house that they'd be boarding in for the one year. Miss Josephine Holbrook had specifically requested that boarding house for the two eager, young girls.  
  
"The lady has kept many, many students there and she's never lost one of them yet," Aunt Jo had told her niece.  
  
"Then maybe we'll be the first," Sara swallowed and looked up at the old- fashioned building. When they went inside, the mistress showed them upstairs to their rooms. Sara's room was small and pretty with flowered wallpaper and muslin curtains. The bed, she found, was amazingly comfortable for a boarding room. Next to the bed was a tiny desk and a washstand with pitcher and cloth included. And underneath the window, Sara trembled with joy, was a window seat with plushy cushions. Sara dropped her things and leapt over to the seat and flung herself upon it. It was even more comfortable than the one she had at home. The window looked out over the street and beyond was a lovely park with benches and a pond in the middle. Over the little stream, there was a rustic bridge. Oh, this was pure Providence! Either that or she had remarkable stroke of luck.  
  
On the first day of classes, Sara and Anne took a carriage to the grounds and examined their schedules.  
  
"My first class is English with Professor Ashing." Sara looked up from her schedule.  
  
"And me as well," Anne exclaimed. Sara grinned.  
  
"Oh, good, I was afraid I wouldn't know anyone because Josie, Jane and Ruby haven't got that class."  
  
As she was finishing her sentence, the three girls appeared in person from behind. The group exchanged greetings and began in one large procession towards the school.  
  
"I really wish you two had taken the two year course. The one year is supposedly much harder," Jane addressed Anne and Sara. Miss Stacey had suggested that Anne Shirley, Sara Holbrook, Gilbert Blythe, and Charlie Sloane take the teacher's course in one year instead of two. The first three had excepted, but the latter had not been able.  
  
"I was afraid I mightn't been able to do two years," Sara said and Anne nodded in agreement.  
  
"I don't care if I don't pass, my father can afford to send me back," Josie replied. There was a pregnant pause.  
  
Quickly changing the subject, Ruby said, "Have you seen my French professor? He is simply a dream. He has the cutest moustache."  
  
The girls made their way up the steps and departed in the front hall, Sara and Anne trooping off to the farthest corridor. They entered the large classroom, filling slowly with students and sat down in two seats in the back. Sara noticed Gilbert sitting up towards the front, chatting with a boy she'd never seen before. She gazed around at the other students filing into the rows of desks. There was one girl over by the window, with her chin in her hand and mind, no doubt, was not in the classroom. She had long brown curls and rosy cheeks. Her livid brown eyes were big and dreamy as she gazed out the window.  
  
"Anne. Do you see that girl over there? With the brown hair and the look of a star-struck dreamer."  
  
"Yes, I noticed her yesterday at orientation. She's got to be the prettiest girl I've seen yet. Do you think she's a kindred spirit?"  
  
"Anyone with eyes like that must be a kindred spirit."  
  
"I was also looking at the girl behind the boy with the red hair. Near the professor's desk. With the dark brown hair. She looks as if she just stepped out of fairyland, with those lovely pointed ears and big green eyes."  
  
"Oh, I see her now, I quite agree. She must be a member of some distant elfland."  
  
After the speculating of peers, the class began. That first day was full of excitement and new experiences. Sara found herself almost walking into the boy's dressing room, then realized she was completely lost after coming out of an algebra class. Anne and Sara later found out that the girl with brown hair and rosy cheeks was Priscilla Grant and the "elf-eared" girl was Stella Maynard. They found Priscilla to be a wonderful friend, full of zest, spirit, mischief and fun. Stella had the air of one full of wistful little dreams waiting to blossom. With both of these girls, Sara and Anne became very intimate. Autumn passed in rough east winds of rain and cloud. Winter passed drearily, filled with the strain of studying as well as social venues.  
  
But both Anne and Sara found the time to visit home on the weekends. On February break, Priscilla and Stella came home with them, Priscilla to Green Gables and Stella to Holbrook farm. They had a merry two weeks of snowy twilight romps, laughter, and stories.  
  
And Sara kept up her writing. When March came around and both the girls were fifteen, Sara had been considering sending some of her poems in for publication. Anne welcomed the idea excitedly.  
  
"Just think, Sara. If this comes through, I'll be the best friend of a famous author," Anne had said when Sara confessed her author thoughts. Though she did have struggles along the way. The first poem she sent out, to The Woman's Weekly, was sent back so quickly, she almost gave up right then. Anne encouraged her saying she should probably send things to smaller magazines at first, then work up from there. Sara tried several local papers, all coming back with a big fat envelope, which meant that there was a rejection slip in it. Sara could tell when it was sent back because the envelopes were always fat. She began to dread the coming of another envelope, it meant failure once again. She couldn't tell why she kept on sending them, but every week she'd take a walk across the park and slip a thin envelope into the mailbox.  
  
Then, on a bright April morning, coming into her little room after the last class of the day, Sara saw a thin white envelope on the tiny desk. Her hands went cold and she rushed over to the spindly chair and sat down rather clumsily. With trembling fingers, she slit open the package and pulled the paper inside.  
  
Dear Miss Holbrook, (she read),  
  
We are pleased to inform you that your charming poem, "Owl's Laughter," has been chosen for publication in this week's "Plant World." Thank you for your contribution. We look forward to seeing more of your work.  
  
Sincerely yours,  
  
Editor of "Plant World"  
  
And a list of editors followed. Sara had to control herself from screaming out loud. "We look forward to seeing more of your work." Oh, isn't this a huge step on her Alpine Path. Sara ran into Anne's room, clutching the letter in her hands. Following Sara's reaction, though more thorough, Anne yelled out joyfully. "Oh, Sara this is splendid! I can't wait to tell the others, they'll be so proud of you! I'm proud of you. Sara, you did it. You're just one less step away to becoming a real author. It's so wonderful." On that note of praise, Sara went to bed, dreaming sweet, hopeful dreams.  
  
Everyone, of course, was certainly proud of Sara. She got many congratulations during the following day. Even Gilbert and Charlie didn't hesitate to send happy praise. Gilbert had looked rather weary, Sara noticed, when he shook her hand. Anne had kept up her rivalry with him, but she had not mentioned her ignorance to him in months. Sara wondered and asked Anne about it that evening.  
  
"Oh, I don't know. Something's just gone out of it, I suppose. Do you remember when we played the lily maid last summer with Ruby and Jane and I was Elaine, who floated down to "Camelot" on your father's dory? And the dory sprung a leak and it sank and I was clinging on to the bridge and Gilbert came and rescued me? Well, when we pulled to shore, I of course, was holding my head high and didn't let him take my hand as I stepped out. When we were on the grass, he asked for my friendship because the silly grudge had gone on for long enough. I was kind of uneasy; I wasn't sure how I felt towards him anymore. But of course, that little droplet of anger left in me got the better of me and I told him I'd never forgive him. And he stormed off saying he'd never ask me to be friends again. That's all, I guess. I've just been up with this rivalry to satisfy myself. But I'm not sure if I could ever go up to him and admit I was wrong."  
  
Sara nodded and left the room, shaking her head all the way down the hall, sorry she had asked.  
  
Spring flowered beautifully in the little park outside Sara's window, and it flowered all over the grounds of Queens, it blossomed out at Aunt Josephine's front lawn, but it flowered the most in Sara's little room. Her pen burst of phrases and rhyme, words and romance. "Plant World" was glad to take her sketches into their pages, as well as "Canada, Our Modern World," as well as "Quilting and Craft", but the best, by far, was "Charlottetown Daily News." Every day, this newspaper was sent to every citizen of the town and Sara's poems were nearly always on the "Writer's Corner" page. Anne was ecstatic of Sara's achievements. The Alpine Path certainly looked like an easy climb now. Occasionally, of course, she'd get those fat envelopes, but they no longer bothered her because her head was in the clouds.  
  
Graduation loomed nearer like a big cloud of fog. Anne was to read her essay from English class and Gilbert was to receive the Gold Medal. Sara had won the Avery Scholarship. The Avery Scholarship was a free admission for three years at Redmond College. Anne had been a close second, but had decided to go to Redmond College anyway. So had Gilbert, Charlie and Moody. For graduation, Sara had bought a filmy blue material to make up during the weekend at home. Anne had gotten something similar, but a pale green. When the day finally came, Sara stood nervously in front of her mirror with Anne behind her tying her sash.  
  
"I'm so afraid I'll make a fool of myself. I'll probably trip on the way to the platform and rip up the hem of this dress."  
  
"I'm going to do your hair in the new pompadour style, it looks so becoming on you," Anne said taking a brush from the bedside table.  
  
"Anne, aren't you the least bit nervous for this?" Sara asked, anxious.  
  
"Oh, that would be the normal reaction to any of these things. But really, it's like our next step to becoming full-fledged women. And besides, in three years we'll go to Redmond and become BA's. Won't that exciting? This graduation ceremony is going to be wonderful and thrilling, whether you fall on your face or not."  
  
Sara sighed and looked back at her reflection. The face had not changed much, the blond locks still fell softly about her face and her eyes were still blue-gray, but there was something different. There was no longer a child staring back at her, but a tall girl of fifteen, a much wiser one for that matter and Sara realized that Anne was right.  
  
The night passed in a splendor of thrills. The entire Holbrook family sat proudly beside Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert. Sara gracefully accepted her award and didn't tread on her dress. Anne looked beautiful, standing up at the podium, reading her essay. Sara looked over at Gilbert, who was looking up at the bright face with the big starry eyes and now rather auburn hair and Sara smiled. 


	13. Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Thirteen  
  
Sara sat in the parlor with her brothers and sisters, telling them everything about her experiences at Queens. It felt so good to be back again, among people she loved and the places she knew. The first time she set eyes on her old room, she felt it must be embracing her with warm, welcoming arms. If the walls could talk, she thought they'd say, "We've missed you, welcome back." Boarding rooms may be all very well, decked with gold and silver or satin tapestry, but there's no place just like home.  
  
Sara had walked all through her old haunts. Idlewild was abloom with apple blossoms for the summer, soon to bear apples. Violet Vale was all a splendor of purple, purple, purple. She visited Willowmere and walked down the Birch Path, pausing at the old Avonlea school. Lastly, she sat for an entire hour and a half at the Dryad's Bubble. This spot was the dearest to her for it really was the place that was truly hers.  
  
She and Anne took a walk over to the shore road in late afternoon one day, remembering the spot where they had been stopped by the peddler and the fate of that event. Anne laughed now at the dramatic appearance she made when Sara first saw her with her green hair. The girls loitered over to the deep red cliffs of the Avonlea shore, gazing out at the blazing sky of sun and flame and talking of past-graduation happenings.  
  
"Did you see some of the great, big amethysts those old ladies wore at the graduation reception? That's what I used to imagine diamonds were like, but then I saw a real diamond and they looked so cold and unwelcome. To think if we were rich, we could have all those lovely purple amethysts around our necks and in our hair."  
  
"I think we are rich. You said once, 'Look at that sea, all silver and shadow and visions of things not seen.' You couldn't enjoy its loveliness anymore if you had ropes of diamonds or purple amethysts. You wouldn't change into any of those women if you could. I don't want to be anyone but myself, even if I have to go uncomforted by diamonds all my life. I'm quite content to be Sara of Holbrook Farm with my little string of pearls that Father gave me for my birthday. I know he gave them to me with as much love as ever went with any of those old ladies amethysts."  
  
Anne silently agreed and they turned to stroll back home. As they were coming up the main road, a whistling could be heard over the hill. As they reached the top, they saw Gilbert Blythe come out from the Blythe gate, whistling a tune. He lifted his cap to them and would have passed on in silence if Sara had not nudged Anne in the ribs and coughed loudly. Anne extended a hand as Sara watched. Sara had told Anne to really forgive Gilbert and to get it over with.  
  
"Gilbert, I want to say I'm sorry for these three years. I've been awful stubborn and I'd like you to forgive me, if you can find in your heart to say so."  
  
Sara watched Gilbert take the hand eagerly. He answered, "Oh, we were meant to be good friends, Anne. But have you really forgiven me of my old fault?"  
  
Anne nodded. Sara smiled at the two of them.  
  
"Here, I'll going to walk you home." Gilbert fell into step beside Anne and Sara watched them from the top of the hill, sighing and saying softly to herself,  
  
"God's in His Heaven, all's right the world."  
  
  
  
THE END 


End file.
